BOARDINC 
 
 HORACE HOLDEN 
 
YOUNG BOYS AND 
 BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 THE FUNCTIONS, ORGANISATION AND 
 ADMINISTRATION OF THE SUB- 
 PREPARATORY BOARDING- 
 SCHOOL FOR BOYS 
 
 BY 
 
 HORACE HOLDEN 
 H 
 
 RICHARD G. BADGER 
 
 THE GORHAM PRESS 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 
Copyright 1913 by Richard G. Badger 
 
 All Rights Reserved ^ 4*7 
 
 The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. 
 
 
To my friend 
 
 F. C. W. 
 who awakened me to a new vocation. 
 
 296653 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This thesis was first written in 1908-1909 to 
 satisfy required work in a graduate course at 
 Harvard University, known then as " Educa- 
 tion 3c." I was requested from many quarters 
 at that time, to seek a publisher, but at the sug- 
 gestion of the Faculty in the Department of 
 Education, I have waited for a few years, and 
 have revised the book in "the light of expe- 
 rience." I am sure that those gentlemen who 
 are my very good friends, and who have not only 
 been the avenues of instruction to me, but of 
 great inspiration as well, hoped that a change 
 would come over the "spirit of my dream/' but 
 I must frankly say, that however much in error 
 I may be, my continued thought on the matter 
 leads but to the conclusion that the educational 
 opportunities for the classes, must of necessity be 
 different from those of the masses. We must 
 look at the question from a practical standpoint, 
 and I am very sure that a form of education for 
 the more favored of fortune that looks towarda 
 a democratic ideal and a patriotic support of the 
 
6 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 institutions and traditions of America, must be 
 infinitely better than any form that would thrust 
 the boy into a heterogeneous environment, and 
 expect him to emerge uninfluenced by such an 
 association. Furthermore, I firmly believe that 
 many hold not only this view of democracy them- 
 selves, but really think that a boy should be well- 
 grounded in the " Three R's," although they 
 may fear to acknowledge such an antiquated 
 creed, in the face of the present-day public 
 school curriculum, which, as any student of 
 pedagogy will affirm, is general culture. The 
 culture is proving deplorably " general' ' as he 
 will observe who has the inclination to make 
 exhaustive inspections of those schools that are 
 considered our "best" grammar and high 
 schools. I believe a re-action to this "spreading 
 out" is now setting in, which merely supports 
 my contention in respect to the curriculum. 
 However, I should digress no further, as I do 
 not assume the right to judge a system which I 
 know merely from empirical conclusions. My 
 thought and research lie in the hope of present- 
 ing a complete plan for the organisation and 
 administration of a boarding-school for young 
 boys, between the ages of seven and fourteen 
 years, of a type known in England as the 
 "preparatory" school, and in America as, inter- 
 
PREFACE 7 
 
 changeably, the "Lower School," the "Junior 
 Boarding-school," or the "Sub-preparatory 
 School." 
 
 To do this, it has been necessary to consider at 
 length the functions of the junior boarding- 
 school, and then to base my educational plan 
 upon a practical consideration of the actual 
 class conditions existing in America to-day, and 
 learned, not theoretically, but through a contact 
 of several years with the business and financial 
 world. I invite criticism upon the question 
 whether this policy is not a wiser one, than the 
 presentation of a plan founded upon some vague 
 ideals which might serve a perfect, but very dis- 
 tant social community. The boy is a creature 
 strongly susceptible to environment during his 
 early years, so that, if it is his fortune to be born 
 into the socially superior and directing classes, 
 his inherited cultural polish need not be rubbed 
 off any more than active, red-blooded boy- 
 life will, naturally, rub it off by premature 
 association with those outside his own social posi- 
 tion. With the approach of maturity, when once 
 his character has been formed, he may meet the 
 world in all its various phases, and, in his uni- 
 versity days, and even secondary school days, 
 mingle with impunity among men of many minds 
 and stations. 
 
8 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 I do not wish to be condemned for setting forth 
 a plan of education which will turn out an un- 
 democratic citizen. I think democracy is, per- 
 haps, in its ideal condition, a matter of level; 
 but I do not think that a boy or a man needs to 
 descend to someone else's level to become demo- 
 cratic, and as the boy favored by fortune has 
 the advantages in the matter of level, he should 
 be prepared to lead such a life, as to help the 
 establishment of the ideal democracy, by draw- 
 ing others up to his level. This means personal 
 power, and elements of personal power are what 
 the junior boarding-school should develop. I do 
 not feel that this aim can be misconstrued, unless 
 perhaps by that type of educator whom I have 
 met with in print, one who seems to think that 
 the private school has no right to exist at all. 
 His notions are fixed, and argument is futile. For 
 the present the boarding-school for young boys 
 has a right to flourish, for it is responding more 
 and more to an educational demand. As to its 
 future, it all depends whether it improves or 
 deteriorates. The man it seeks to mould, is the 
 democratic aristocrat, one who is to become a 
 great leader in the world, because he has learned 
 to follow. 
 
 I have not found, in my own reading, a manual 
 devoted exclusively to the matter of pre- 
 
PREFACE $ 
 
 adolescents in boarding-schools, and so I am 
 hoping, that this at least may prove to be 
 a modest beginning towards a bibliography 
 of the subject. If it can offer any sugges- 
 tion of value to the few who are now so 
 earnestly working, or planning to work, with 
 the boy in boarding-school, I shall feel that 
 its revision has not been in vain. Perhaps if 
 there is any credit due me at all, I should 
 only assume it for a compilation of the ideas and 
 research of others, so frequently do I resort to 
 quotations ; and in the next breath I should have 
 to petition the indulgence of the authorities 
 quoted, as I am positive that I have been quixotic 
 enough to use such fragmentary selections from 
 their writings, as to considerably alter the 
 authors ' meanings. My interpretations certainly 
 are individual, and I am willing to apologise in 
 every instance where I have borrowed the 
 research or expressions of others to amplify my 
 own ideas, or to express some important fact in 
 more graceful phrases than my own pen com- 
 mand? The theories from which all educational 
 systems spring, before they bear the practical 
 fruits, are quite as much in evidence in the 
 early pages of this book, as though I belonged 
 to that very class of theorists that I condemn, but 
 I am hopeful that the reader may find something 
 
10 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 of use, if nothing more than the stimulation of 
 his thought, in the blossom of the book at least, 
 without having to reach the very end in order 
 to be satisfied that the subject is one worthy of 
 deeper reflection than that which is usually given 
 it. And further, I must ask the indulgence of 
 American schoolmen, if they feel my attitude 
 towards English education verges too closely 
 upon an innuendo. We must be broad enough to 
 realise that the English have been at this work 
 for a long time, and should know how to produce 
 results. I am sure that any American who has 
 had the intimate life and work in English schools 
 that it has been my privilege to experience, will 
 not interpret my admiration of many of their 
 methods as Anglomania. It is patriotism rather 
 than selfishness that seeks the best for the Ameri- 
 can boy, and if some things that are best may be 
 borrowed from England, evidently a trip across 
 the Atlantic makes for the welfare of our junior 
 boarding-school. 
 
 Thorndike says: "It isn't of any use for 
 steam to just be : it must make wheels go. If it 
 just . . . hisses and displays itself, it only 
 wears out the boiler." 1 So the formulation of a 
 plan for the operation of a school is mere hypo- 
 
 1 Human Nature Club ; Thorndike. P. 125. 
 
PREFACE 11 
 
 thesis until put to the practical test. Then, if 
 proven, and not found wanting, it may be ac- 
 cepted as educational principle. But without 
 hypotheses, world-problems would never be 
 solved, and the elementary boarding-school ques- 
 tion is as vitally important to the few that it 
 affects, as the public school issue is to the nation 
 at large. The great aim and purpose of all 
 elementary school practice, is to lead the child to 
 find himself to " self -discovery " as Froebel 
 would say but this result requires more than 
 the school arts for its attainment, and it is my 
 desire to prove in this thesis, that the junior 
 boarding-school may offer in the best way for a 
 certain number, the additional and essential fun- 
 daments of education which find definition and 
 discussion in the pages that follow. 
 
 HORACE HOLDEN, 
 Director of Lower School. 
 
 Morristown School, 
 Morristown, New Jersey. 
 September, 1913. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. The Lower School 17 
 
 II. The Boy from Seven to Fourteen*. 33 
 
 777. Physical Education 47 
 
 IV. Intellectual Education 58 
 
 V. Moral Education 66 
 
 VI. Social Education 82 
 
 VII. The Day's Work 91 
 
 F777. The Curriculum . 109 
 
 IX. The Personnel of the Staff 129 
 
 X. Location and Equipment 140 
 
 XL The Economics of the School 150 
 
 XIJ. Special Problems in the School 159 
 
YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
YOUNG BOYS AND 
 
 BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 i 
 
 THE LOWER SCHOOL 
 
 ONE view of Education, that of its 
 externalised form, is the acquisition 
 of knowledge; its inner aspect is 
 development. But it is wiser to fuse, 
 with a synthesis of both these phases, the clear, 
 constant hypothesis that this word development 
 shall not mean intellectual accretion merely, but 
 shall include the building of character, the cul- 
 tivation of poise and manners, and the produc- 
 tion of a strong and healthy body as well. This 
 fuller meaning of Education establishes it as a 
 life-process under which the mental, moral, social 
 and physical powers of the individual must be 
 recognized as equally important, always inter- 
 dependent, and one nature demanding the same 
 degree of attention as another. 
 
 The school, as an institution in particular, 
 gives the child his first systematised experiences 
 of his education. Up to kindergarten age, if not 
 beyond it, the boy has been under the fortuitous 
 influence of the home. Then the first change 
 occurs, and his concept of life broadens under 
 
 17 
 
18 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 the unexpressed consciousness of the fact that 
 he is by no means the single autocrat of the 
 world. He begins to realise to some extent the 
 mental tasks to be achieved, and he yearns if 
 unpampered and physically sound for strength 
 and build superior to comrades of his own age. 
 At tbe age of seven he is neither moral nor im- 
 moral, but simply unmoral, and his character, 
 like h.s body, his brain, and his bearing, is in 
 the making. Hence the query : ' ' How shall each 
 of these be made the best I M 
 
 If the home environment is normal, so that the 
 lad has that opportunity for country life which 
 is every child's prerogative, and if the public 
 school or the day-school of the neighborhood is 
 reasonably good, the American parent is apt to 
 assume that the problem of the boy is readily 
 solved. Unfortunately, this happy combination 
 of circumstances does not always obtain, for the 
 home conditions frequently give the lad a most 
 unsatisfactory influence and surrounding. The 
 mother may be an invalid, the father irregular, 
 domestic misunderstandings may have occurred,' 
 parents may be dead, and worse than all else 
 the boy may be left first to the care of a nurse 
 and later to the companionship of a chauffeur, 
 or allowed the freedom of the streets. Perhaps 
 the home may be in the city, where, for months 
 
THE LOWER SCHOOL 10 
 
 at a time, the lad has no chance for that kinship 
 with nature so vital to his welfare no fields to 
 play in, no woods to roam, no hills to cover, no 
 rivers to swim nothing but the conventional 
 activities and interests of the city with its per- 
 petual rumble and rush, disturbing to even less 
 sensitive adult life. Lastly, there are the dis- 
 advantages of the public school, or the private 
 day-school, in town. To the restricted life of the 
 latter, the former adds a distressing mixture of 
 social classes acknowledged even in presumably 
 democratic America. The discipline of the 
 public school, however mechanical, is apt to be 
 reasonably good. The building is frequently 
 more sanitary and better appointed than the 
 quarters of the private school, for the appear- 
 ance of the institution is sure to be the pride 
 of the community. Educational experiments 
 flourish there for they may be tried out at public 
 expense. From these the boy may benefit greatly, 
 but it seems as if the services of the public 
 school ended at this point. In the cities it is the 
 centre of a juvenile mass being broken into 
 * ' citizenship. " It is the home of ' ' Ain Vs " and 
 "He don Vs." It is the court of a tired woman 
 with fifty youngsters within her jurisdiction. It 
 is the grave of individual development and 
 spontaneity. 
 
20 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 The private day-school is better, especially the 
 one that is located in the country and draws it* 
 patronage from the city. The classes are smaller. 
 The Mother Tongue is more courteously treated. 
 Each boy has a chance to live, to expand, to 
 learn. He has men for teachers no doubt; men 
 who are alert to his interests and one with him 
 in the daily life of the school. Yet with all these 
 things in his favor, he still remains under artifi- 
 cial conditions the greater portion of his time. 
 
 The intellectual development that the private 
 day-school and the public school both accom- 
 plish may be good; each makes an attempt at 
 physical training ; but in moral and social educa- 
 tion they can not provide the constant environ- 
 ment that contributes to success in these direc- 
 tions, nor does the home, irrespective of how 
 good its influence may be. The day-schools may 
 try their best to cover the four sides of the boy's 
 development, but the facts still remain that their 
 supervision is not continuous and that they have 
 no exact way of telling how widely the home 
 authority extends. And so, in the period of 
 maximum mental plasticity, in the years between 
 seven and fourteen, when the foundation of a 
 robust constitution should be laid, with the com- 
 panionship of men whom he may love, the cardi- 
 nal elements of education should reach the lad 
 
THE LOWER SCHOOL SI 
 
 through a boarding-school that realises the 
 responsibility of being parent as well as teacher 
 of the boy. 
 
 No institution has more cause for existence 
 and a better right to be, than the boarding- 
 school that can and does fulfil its obligations to 
 the pre-adolescent lad. In this country, schools 
 of this type at present are rare, and their organ- 
 isation and administration may prove puzzling 
 to the schoolmaster who is more or less the novice. 
 But the elementary boarding-school has a wide 
 future before it in America, providing American 
 schoolmen are willing to learn from the ex- 
 amples set us abroad especially in the English 
 "Preparatory" Schools. In that country, among 
 the many precedents established for the conduct 
 of junior schools, two are of fundamental im- 
 portance; viz, the absolute separation of the 
 elementary from the secondary institutions, and 
 reasonably small schools, in which the personal 
 touch of the headmaster may be strong. In 1900 
 there were, according to Michael E. Sadler, over 
 ten thousand boys in the four hundred odd 
 preparatory schools of England; or an overage 
 of twenty -five lads to a school. 1 
 
 1 Special Reports to Royal Educ. Com. 1900. 
 
22 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 Schools of this type can hardly be operated 
 successfully and at the same time cheaply in 
 America, where, for years, the cost of living has 
 been advancing. Their charges then, are neces- 
 sarily high, and it follows as a natural sequence 
 that they must look for their patronage among 
 the moneyed classes. But this is exactly the 
 element that needs this manner of school, for 
 any one who has watched the various phases of 
 the boy problem, will admit that the boarding- 
 school may find quite as much missionary work 
 to accomplish with the neglected children of the 
 rich, as the city public school finds to do with the 
 neglected children of the poor. 
 
 The secondary school, which takes the boy at 
 early adolescence, and in four years fits him for 
 college, is the connecting link between the two 
 most important stages of the boy's systematised 
 educational experience. So much of the boy's 
 success in the secondary school, and in college 
 also, depends upon the habits fixed between the 
 ages of seven and fourteen, that the lower school 
 commands an ever-increasing consideration and 
 study. 
 
 While the aim of education in general has ever 
 been to produce the perfect man, models of ex- 
 cellence vary with the point of view, and for one 
 to criticise the position of the lower school as to 
 
THE LOWER SCHOOL 23 
 
 its definition of educational aims and values, and 
 of organisation and administration, without 
 troubling to recognise its peculiar responsi- 
 bilities, would be unjustifiable censure. Its 
 problems need to be solved in terms different 
 from those of the public school. Its questions 
 may command the attention and co-operation of 
 the directors of public education, but they should 
 not seek their answers. This is the age of special- 
 ists, and the man who controls the affairs of 
 some great educational system is by no means 
 an authority for the man who is devotedly and 
 intimately directing the destinies of a few young- 
 sters within his own little sphere. Pedagogically 
 speaking, there is no question that certain broad, 
 psychological principles underlie all successful 
 teaching, but beyond these, which affect but one- 
 fourth at most of the boy's life at school, looms 
 up the personal equation of the master, and the 
 school environment that he establishes. It is one 
 thing for this man to formulate and to express 
 his ideals. It is another thing to make them 
 effective. And yet, if the school has no concep- 
 tion at all of what it hopes to accomplish, its 
 progress may only lead to failure. With this 
 defence in mind, perhaps a crude and halting 
 formulation of aims may be presented, and 
 allowed. 
 
24 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 Let us first divest ourselves of the idea that 
 the present craze for the vocational need find 
 expression in this school. This is true, because 
 it is far from being the function of the school to 
 train a mere child for some specific occupation in 
 later life. Laying the foundation for complete 
 living is primarily a culture-process. And what 
 is Culture? Dr. Henderson tells us it is "the 
 pursuit of perfection." 1 Who shall attempt to 
 fix an exact standard of perfection for the boy 
 of ten or twelve? A general standard may be 
 established however, and the lad's experience 
 directed in the light thereof, without making him 
 a snob or a Miss Nancy. It is not necessary that 
 the boy should never soil his hands, but he should 
 be expected to know what society requires in the 
 matter of personal appearance. It is not neces- 
 sary that he should read Terence and Plautus at 
 sight, but it is important that he should have a 
 fundamental grasp of that language from which 
 so many of our English words trace their descent. 
 He is not called upon to be a Sandow, but it is 
 indispensable that he should have a wholesome, 
 healthy body, and know how to keep the same. 
 He may not be called upon to attend the Sanc- 
 
 1 Education and the Larger Life ; Henderson. 
 P. 28. 
 
THE LOWER SCHOOL 25 
 
 tuary thrice of a Sabbath day, but it is wise that 
 he should have some conception of, and love and 
 respect for the Absolute, and understand to 
 some extent his relation with the Power that 
 governs the Universe. In short, the boy needs 
 such physical, mental, moral and social training, 
 and such cultivation of manners, as Professor 
 Hanus says, " shall acquaint him with the world 
 in which he lives and the civilisation into which 
 he is born, and of his own relations to them, in- 
 cluding his duties and privileges. " This train- 
 ing the school should give in order to " provide 
 the opportunity for the exercise of all the child's 
 powers mental and moral, aesthetic, manual or 
 constructive through good instruction and wise 
 discipline. ' ' 1 
 
 The fact that the environment of the school is 
 constant, imposes the heavier responsibility upon 
 it. According to that vague critic the General 
 Public if the results the junior boarding-school 
 accomplish with the boy are unsatisfactory, then 
 the school is to blame. If the boy turns out well, 
 then it is because he is naturally good. "Un- 
 solicited testimonials" rarely come uninvited. 
 
 1 Educational Aims and Educational Values ; 
 Hanus. P. 17. 
 
26 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 In the boarding-school as in the day-school, 
 the support of the parents is the corner-stone of 
 success; yet in many instances especially when 
 the school is within a short distance of the home 
 the indulgent father or selfish mother attempts 
 to thwart the influence of the school by con- 
 tinued efforts to secure privileges which are out 
 of harmony with the regulations of the school. 
 
 Mr. Alexander Devine, headmaster of the 
 Clayesmore School at Pangbourne writes l : 
 " Doubtless, the perfectly ideal thing would be 
 a home in which the father had leisure to devote 
 to the several important sides of a boy's educa- 
 tion, physical, mental, moral (and social), and 
 from which a boy could attend a day-school for 
 instruction purposes; but in these days of high 
 tension and strenuous work, in how many cases 
 would this be possible ? 
 
 ''Then, again, I am personally of the opinion 
 that the discipline of the home can never be as 
 wholly effective as that of the boarding-school. 
 In my opinion this constitutes the gravest peril, 
 and is quite enough in itself to condemn the day- 
 school principle, however ideally excellent it may 
 be. The petting at home, the exaggeration of the 
 
 1 Westminster Gazette, London, November 6th, 
 1911. P. 14. 
 
THE LOWER SCHOOL 27 
 
 slightest ailment into something serious, the 
 home luxury and indulgence, all constitute to my 
 mind, the most serious menace to the national 
 character. 
 
 ' ' Further, there is the value of a boy 's learn- 
 ing at an early age to carry himself decently with 
 his fellows and to consider the ' community. ' All 
 this would, of course, be lacking to a considerable 
 extent under a day-school system. 
 
 "I once asked the headmaster of one of our 
 largest grammar-schools to be allowed to address 
 the school with the object of endeavoring to es- 
 tablish a School Mission, and I remember so well 
 his reply : * We are only a day-school, and there 
 is very little corporate feeling; the boys simply 
 come here to be taught, and forthwith go away'." 
 
 This shows that our British cousins are not 
 only alive to the four phases of the boy's educa- 
 tion already enumerated, but that they also ap- 
 preciate the fact that the school should have 
 another aim that of developing the boy as a 
 whole; to see that his progress intellectually, 
 physically, morally and socially contributes 
 toward leadership and executive ability, toward 
 helpfulness to others and good fellowship. The 
 lad who attends the junior boarding-school is 
 without doubt favored by fortune in respect to 
 means, position in society and birth. If the 
 
23 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 school does not train him so that he may make 
 best use of his privileges, then it fails to fulfil 
 one of its most important functions. It is im- 
 possible for the day-school to give the boy that 
 individual care that is necessary he should have 
 in early life to insure cultivation in later years ; 
 and the boarding-school must take advantage of 
 this fact with others, in order to secure its 
 patronage and maintain its existence. 
 
 The English schoolmen also recognise the fact 
 that the junior boarding-school must be kept 
 small, so that, in the first place, the lad will not 
 feel too much the rigidity of institutional life, 
 and in the second place, so that personal watch 
 may be kept of him during the formative period. 
 These educators regard their vocation more pro- 
 fessionally than the American school proprietor 
 who feels that a school for fifty boys may be run 
 as cheaply as one for twenty-five. It would be 
 cheap without a question. When cultural rather 
 than financial motives can determine the policy 
 of the school, there is hope for results both for 
 the character and equipment of the boy pro- 
 duced, and for the stability of the school itself. 
 
 The prospectus of Huntingdon House l epit- 
 
 1 1908 Prospectus, Huntingdon House, Ted- 
 dington, Middlesex. 
 
THE LOWER SCHOOL II 
 
 omises the aim of the English preparatory school 
 in a few well-chosen words: "Every effort is 
 made to combine the habits of a good home with 
 the discipline of school life, and to foster and 
 develop that self-respect and sense of responsi- 
 bility without which boys cannot grow up into 
 good men. The classes are kept small so that 
 the boys receive considerable individual atten- 
 tion in their work, and mere 'cram' is dis- 
 couraged. The aim of the school is to lay a 
 sound foundation of elementary knowledge, 
 which will best fit a boy for his future career. 
 The individual requirements however of the vari- 
 ous Public Schools (i. e. the great secondary 
 schools of England: Eton, Rugby, Harrow, ct 
 al. ) have careful attention. ' ' And further on in 
 this booklet the school's ambition in athletics is 
 treated in the most practical manner. 
 
 How closely the junior boarding-school in 
 America copies its English prototype in the for- 
 mulation of its aims, is indicated by the follow- 
 ing introduction to the catalogue of one of the 
 few, and certainly one of the best, boarding- 
 schools of this type in America. Its object is 
 "to prepare boys to begin and prosecute success- 
 fully the work of secondary schools. . . ,. . 
 
 . . . Experience has 
 
 proved that intellectual power and strength of 
 
30 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 character depend upon exact early training and 
 discipline, and, with a sound body, become the 
 most valuable acquisition which a boy can have. 
 It is the aim of this school, therefore, to train 
 a boy along the right lines from the beginning, 
 to teach him how to study and form correct 
 habits of work, and to inculcate the principles 
 which are to regulate his daily conduct and 
 guide his future life. ' ' 
 
 The junior boarding-school commands, then, 
 an extensive range of influences wherewith to 
 make its aims effective, for it has greater author- 
 ity than the day-school, it has the constant sur- 
 veillance of its pupils, and it stands "in loco 
 parentis" as well. A detailed survey of a prac- 
 tical plan for the organisation and administra- 
 tion of a junior boarding-school under American 
 conditions, should commend itself to all private 
 schoolmen who are interested in pre-adolescent 
 boys. Their views must necessarily vary, and 
 may fail to coincide in many respects with the 
 scheme that this book presents. But the 
 criticism that stimulates a deeper interest in 
 this comparatively new educational field in 
 America, can only be beneficial. The aims of 
 the junior boarding-school already expressed, 
 constitute the basis upon which the structure of 
 the management and operation is to be built. 
 
THE LOWER SCHOOL 31 
 
 By no means final, the aims form at least a 
 " working hypothesis," an attempt to unite the 
 practical with the ideal a map to guide the 
 American educator along a rather uncharted 
 course. 
 
 Because the attendance at our free grammar 
 schools is so vast compared with the relatively 
 few boys under fourteen in the American board- 
 ing-schools, there is no reason why, for himself 
 if for no one else, the private school boy should 
 not benefit from an educational plan as care- 
 fully worked out as that under which the public 
 school lad is cared for. And when it is borne 
 in mind that the private school boy is destined 
 in almost every case, to become a member of the 
 directing class, it is all the more imperative that, 
 at an early age, his training should be such as 
 will tend to produce a man of probity and 
 responsibility in years to come. 
 
 The junior boarding-school should not assume 
 the role of a penal institution. It does not follow 
 that it should be one, because in some instances 
 it may accept boys who have been unmanageable 
 in their homes. Parents are usually the farthest 
 from understanding their children, and they 
 who realise their deficiency, and, having the 
 means to send their son to a proper boarding- 
 school, fail to do so, are very far from fulfilling 
 
32 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 their parental duties by the boy. The junior 
 school is the place for habit forming, not re- 
 forming, and the headmaster should have that 
 object in view when accepting boys for registra- 
 tion. It is not difficult however, to observe in a 
 personal interview, whether the parent or the boy 
 is at fault. One's decision may be governed ac- 
 cordingly, and with the lad once registered, the 
 school's problem becomes prophylactic rather 
 than therapeutic. 
 
II 
 
 THE BOY FROM SEVEN TO FOURTEEN 
 
 IT is as important to fit the curriculum to 
 the individual as it is impossible to fit every 
 individual to an inflexible curriculum. Yet 
 it seems logical to conclude that too liberal 
 an adaptation of conditions to the person, 
 destroys an appreciation of the significance of 
 unity and precludes a proper ( l esprit de corps. ' ' 
 The problem that arises then, is that of striking 
 the happy medium through which the boy shall 
 have every opportunity extended to him for in- 
 dividual, self -active development, and still shall 
 be able to appreciate his obligations to his asso- 
 ciates and to his environment. 
 
 The boy whom we meet in the junior or sub- 
 preparatory school, is the present object of con- 
 sideration. It is paramount, therefore, to view 
 his physical, mental, moral and social capacities 
 during his second cycle that is, during the 
 years between seven and fourteen before set- 
 ting a definite programme to be lived out within 
 that period. 
 
 According to Dr. Hall, the boy, during this 
 second cycle, passes the period of acute dentition, 
 33 
 
34 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 his health without doubt is at its highest point, 
 his brain has nearly attained adult size, his ac- 
 tivity is at its maximum degree of vivacity and 
 extent. His natural interests are quite indepen- 
 dent of adult influence. "Perception is very 
 acute, and there is great immunity to exposure, 
 danger, accident, as well as to temptation. 
 Reason, true morality, religion, sympathy, love 
 and aesthetic enjoyment are but very slightly 
 developed . . . The child revels in savagery ; 
 and if his tribal, predatory, hunting, fishing, 
 fighting, roving, idle, playing proclivities could 
 be indulged in the country and under new con- 
 ditions that now, alas! seem hopelessly ideal, 
 they could conceivably be so organised and di- 
 rected as to be far more truly humanistic and 
 liberal than all that the best modern school can 
 provide . . . Never again will there be such 
 susceptibility to drill and discipline, such plas- 
 ticity to habituation, or such ready adjustment 
 to new conditions. " l 
 
 These assertions savor of Froebelian prin- 
 ciples, and point still further back to Rousseau, 
 yet perhaps they are more vigorously and prac- 
 tically expressed. They do not question the fact 
 that natural self-activity is the true potential 
 
 1 Youth; Dr. Q. Stanley HalL P. 2, 3. 
 
THE BOY PROM SEVEN TO FOURTEEN 36 
 
 power of the child's development, and yet they 
 indicate with equal force the necessity of utilis- 
 ing sense-impressions during the plastic period 
 as the source of his kenetic energy. 
 
 At this time of a boy's life, the large motor- 
 muscles may be taxed with greater safety than 
 the tiny accessory muscles. Too minute work is 
 apt to arrest the development of the more deli- 
 cate organs; yet many occupations, and forms 
 of athletics, consider the fundamental muscles to 
 the unfortunate exclusion of the smaller ones. 
 The automisms, namely, the habitual nervous ac- 
 tions of childhood, indicate difficulty of tasks 
 and show fatigue. Abundant and vigorous 
 automisms should be expected in the boy, but 
 the instructor should be psychologist enough to 
 differentiate between the natural and the un- 
 natural, to treat each class in its proper way, 
 and to be irritated by neither. 
 
 The natural automisms of the boy should yield 
 to the inhibition of adolescense, and thus become 
 organised under the control of the will. Before 
 the approach of puberty says Hall, "the efferent 
 patterns should be developed into many more or 
 less indelible habits and their colors set fast." 1 
 
 1 Youth ; Dr. G. Stanley Hall. P. 21. 
 
36 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 Hence the necessity of beginning motor special- 
 ties in childhood that require exactness and 
 grace, e. g., piano-playing, drawing, writing, 
 dancing, the pronounciation of a foreign tongue, 
 etc., etc. On the other hand, an excess of un- 
 natural automisms indicates the atypic child, 
 who needs particular care and treatment beyond 
 the scope of the average lower school. 
 
 The conditions under which the best physical 
 and mental growth may obtain, and co-ordinately 
 where the moral and social progress may be 
 equally well assured, are not to be found amid 
 the restrictions of a city school nor under the 
 artificial conditions of a city home. Beneath 
 the clear blue sky of the country, life to the boy 
 is normal and worth living. There he has the 
 unhampered opportunity to live out the history 
 of the race, under such surveillance as will assure 
 his complete capacity for culture. 
 
 The phases of this period of the second cycle, 
 are too broad in their aspects however, to permit 
 of a fixed school routine adaptible to them all. 
 The boy at seven, at ten, and at fourteen, needs 
 different care and thought. The years from 
 seven to nine may really be considered as belong- 
 ing to later childhood, from ten to twelve meaD 
 boyhood pure and simple, while the thirteenth 
 and fourteenth years bring in the time of puber- 
 
THE EOT FROM SEVEN TO FOURTEEN 37 
 
 ty. The junior boarding-school may plan to ac- 
 cept boys at the age of seven, but it will be a long 
 time before the American parent will feel justi- 
 fied in sending a boy away to school who is under 
 ten. And indeed, it is quite right that the 
 mother should remain the sovereign of childhood, 
 providing that she rules wisely and well, and is 
 broad enough to acknowledge and encourage the 
 influence of the father in the training and con- 
 fidence of the boy. The mother must co-operate 
 with the day-school of the district, if the boy up 
 to that age has not been in the hands of a tutor 
 or a governess. "In later childhood the interest 
 which he expresses through kindergarten years 
 dies out, and the primary school work is prone 
 to verge on failure. Sometimes the lad learns 
 to read with avidity, again the lower multipli- 
 cation tables come without seeming effort, but 
 on the whole the boy 's interests lie elsewhere. ' ' 1 
 His teacher, preferably a woman, unless a man 
 can be found who embodies intuition, patience, 
 and long-suffering, must ever encourage him, and 
 be satisfied with small results. It is ill-advised to 
 compel a very strong perseverence, as that might 
 work more harm than good to the child's im- 
 mature nervous system. Impulsiveness, restless- 
 
 1 Growth and Education; Tyler. P. 144. 
 
38 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 ness, suggestion and imitation are at this age, 
 the powerful factors of his mental composition, 
 for the higher intellectual powers are hardly in 
 evidence before the next stage; i. e., the years 
 from ten to twelve. In later childhood, the boy 
 finds it easy to commit lessons to memory, but 
 he fails to comprehend reason, and hence the 
 admonition: Don't argue with a child. 
 
 In " Growth and Education," John M. Tyler 
 says: "He (the boy) thinks much, but he thinks 
 as a child. He is gathering the material out of 
 which he will later frame the ideal plan and 
 structure of his life and work. But the mate- 
 rial will take form and life after adolescence. ' ' l 
 
 The point is, to have the boy of this age out 
 of doors and surrounded with natural objects to 
 stir his curiosity, test his strength, gauge his in- 
 genuity, and train him to take the initiative in 
 thought and action in other words to continue 
 a "following education" for a few years beyond 
 the kindergarten era. The private teacher, the 
 home day-school, or the sub-preparatory board- 
 ing-school as the case may be, should work and 
 teach in general supplementation to this wide 
 stimulation of the areas and powers of the brain. 
 
 1 Growth and Education ; Tyler. Pp. 144-148 
 (condensed). 
 
THE BOY FROM SEVEN TO FOURTEEN 39 
 
 During this period of later childhood, the lad 
 may acquire unfortunate idioms, careless habits, 
 and other reflex actions habits of speech and 
 thought and deed which are apt to become so 
 fixed as to influence his entire life. These im- 
 pressions are often lasting enough to be remem- 
 bered consciously at an advanced age, and deep 
 enough to be mistaken for hereditary traits. 
 The lessons in obedience and habit-forming 
 which the boy receives as a child may be misun- 
 derstood or forgotten, but the habits will be per- 
 manently fixed. It is indeed a task to inculcate 
 neatness, punctuality, self-control, courtesy, 
 truthfulness, reverence, and the like; yet the 
 fact that the task is Herculean, does not remit 
 its necessity. 
 
 Boyhood's years, from ten to twelve inclusive, 
 form the time of re-awakening mental activity. 
 The lad, though still somewhat of a stranger to 
 reason, is able to grasp and employ certain 
 elementary forms of logical analysis, the exposi- 
 tion of arithmetical problems for example, if 
 concrete in content. He realises that he has com- 
 petitors, and if normal, he strives good-natured- 
 ly in every way to excel. This effort is made 
 however, more with the idea of the glory of 
 record and of leadership, than for the thought of 
 working for the sake of acquiring knowledge. 
 
40 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 But in the line of athletics, he appreciates the 
 increase of strength and agility which is to set 
 him above his fellows. In both instances, the 
 ends unquestionably justify the means. The 
 habits formed in earlier years, now re-enforce 
 themselves and start to bear fruit. Physically, 
 the boy begins a rapid growth towards the close 
 of these three years. The bones enlarge and 
 lengthen faster in proportion than the muscles 
 and the internal organs. Hence the danger of 
 the lad outgrowing his strength. While nature 
 will not over-exert itself if left alone, caution 
 should be used in allowing boys of this age to 
 engage too promiscuously in heavy athletics and 
 apparatus-gymnastics. Calisthenics are better 
 than vaulting, and climbing trees than all the 
 trapezes ever constructed. 
 
 The plea for ample outdoor life for the boy 
 from seven to nine, on the basis of allowing 
 natural opportunities for the extension of his 
 experiences and interests, is repeated for the 
 boy of ten to twelve. But this time it is on the 
 ground that during these years he must store up 
 all possible energy energy never gained in the 
 schoolroom however clever intellectually the boy 
 may be against the lean years of puberty. This 
 is an age of boisterous boyhood, of " gangs " and 
 of daring deeds. The lad needs well-regulated 
 
THE BOY FROM SEVEN TO FOURTEEN 41 
 
 hours of sleep, of study, and of open-air life. 
 He needs companions of his own age and sex 
 and position. All these conditions the junior 
 boarding-school can satisfy. With these, it 
 should blend the loving influence and watchful 
 care of the best of homes. A vigorous red- 
 blooded boy resents any one " tagging around" 
 after him, and most properly so, and thus his 
 recreations are in need of tactful supervision. 
 Under-surveillance is preferable to over-surveil- 
 lance if the latter serves to encourage secretive- 
 ness a quality which in the first instance is 
 natural with the boy if we hold to the race- 
 capitulation theory and realise the need of se- 
 cretiveness on the part of primitive man; yet 
 encouraged, this trait becomes the source of 
 many vices. 
 
 In his thirteenth and fourteenth years, the 
 normal time for pubic growth in this latitude, 
 the boy experiences the most rapid development 
 of all his second cycle. The functioning of sex 
 centres his thoughts more particularly on phases 
 of life which before, had either been practically 
 absent from his mind, or else had been differently 
 conceived of. His inquisitiveness is perfectly 
 natural, and should be as naturally satisfied, if 
 not by his parents, at least by the master who 
 is his confidant and friend. The differences and 
 
42 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 meanings of sex if made a mystery, only whet 
 prurient curiousity. 
 
 The following table presents statistics of Bos- 
 ton schoolboys made several years ago by Dr. 
 Bowditch. l The figures establish no norms for 
 the boarding-school lad, who, very likely, finds 
 more fortunate conditions of life to-day, yet the 
 table services to indicate in a way what may be 
 expected in physical growth during the years 
 from seven to fourteen. 
 
 Annual Increase Chest 
 
 Age, last 
 birthday 
 
 Height 
 inches 
 
 Weight 
 pounds 
 
 Height 
 inches 
 
 Weight 
 pounds 
 
 Girth 
 inches 
 
 7 
 
 46.21 
 
 49.47 
 
 
 
 
 
 22.54 
 
 8 
 
 48.16 
 
 54.43 
 
 1.95 
 
 4.96 
 
 23.09 
 
 9 
 
 50.09 
 
 59.97 
 
 1.93 
 
 5.54 
 
 23.79 
 
 10 
 
 52.21 
 
 66.62 
 
 2.12 
 
 6.63 
 
 24.08 
 
 11 
 
 54.01 
 
 72.39 
 
 1.80 
 
 5.77 
 
 24.34 
 
 12 
 
 55.78 
 
 79.82 
 
 1.77 
 
 7.43 
 
 24.93 
 
 13 58.17 88.26 2.39 8.44 25.24 
 
 14 61.08 99.28 2.91 11.02 26.28 
 
 A glance at this table shows the rapidity of 
 the boy's physical growth during pubescent 
 years. The development of the brain at this 
 period is somewhat retarded, for it yields sover- 
 
 1 Study of Children ; Dr. Francis Warner. 
 Pp. 31, 32, 33. 
 
THE BOY FROM SEVEN TO FOURTEEN 43 
 
 eign activity to the body. Here then, comes the 
 plea once more for that vigorous out-of-door life 
 that is to supply the tissue-building oxygen, 
 which in turn assures a sound body for a sound 
 mind. If the boarding-school boy does not at 
 least come up to the standard set by the day- 
 school pupil, enquiry should be made as to the 
 cause of his deficiency. "It may be on account 
 of inadequate food and clothing, of injury and 
 disease, of over-stimulation or under-stimulation 
 of environment, of artificial restraint, or of racial 
 influence. ' ' 1 And it may be because of per- 
 sonal abuse. This evil extends more widely than 
 the majority of parents realise or the average 
 school-master knows. Dr. Edmund Owen says 
 that " Probably the baneful effect of the prac- 
 tice has been considerably exaggerated. In re- 
 viewing the question Sir John Paget remarks, 
 that when practiced frequently by the very 
 young, that is, at any time before or at the be- 
 ginning of puberty, masturbation is quite likely 
 to produce exhaustion and nervousness, and that 
 these mischiefs are nearly sure to happen if the 
 excesses be practiced by those who are liable to 
 epilepsy, or any other form of nervous disease. 
 
 1 Physical Nature of the Child ; Rowe. Pp. 
 117, 118. 
 
44 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 Mr. Lawson Tait writes: 'I have always found 
 the chief difficulty to be that of persuading those 
 who have charge of schools that the practice was 
 a physical delinquency rather than a moral evil ; 
 and that the best remedy was not to tell the poor 
 children that they were damning their souls, but 
 to tell them that they might seriously hurt their 
 bodies, and to explain to them the nature and 
 purport of the functions they were abusing.' 
 Lucas attributes the association of flat feet and 
 weak ankles, together with albuminuria coming 
 on at about puberty, to the effects of peripheral 
 excitement. ' ' 1 As to treatment for this trouble, 
 Dr. Owen adds: "If there be the slightest indi- 
 cation, the boy should be circumcised; or his 
 bladder may be searched from time to time for a 
 possible calculus .... The child should 
 not be allowed to eat for some hours before going 
 to bed, and he should get up early in the morn- 
 ing. The bed clothing should be light and the 
 mattress hard. ' ' * 
 
 There is no question but that the headmaster 
 of every sub-preparatory boarding-school will 
 find a certain percentage of his boys below nor- 
 mal standards. It is within the power of this 
 
 1 Surgical Diseases of Children ; Owen. Pp. 
 271, 270. 
 
THE BOY FROM SEVEN TO FOURTEEN 45 
 
 type of school to raise all such pupils to the 
 proper standard. Adequate nourishment and 
 sufficient fresh air both by day and night con- 
 tribute much to this elevation. Anthropometric 
 measurements should be made of the boys at fixed 
 intervals, and yearly tests taken of their sight 
 and hearing. The condition of lungs, heart and 
 kidneys can be ascertained at the sam6 time. 
 Mental irregularities, to say nothing of moral 
 and social, come to the surface as the work with 
 the boy proceeds; but these are of such variety 
 and degree as to lie beyond the range of this im- 
 mediate discussion. They should however, be 
 borne in mind in fixing the routine, curriculum, 
 and discipline for the boy. The school has not 
 only to promote the best all-round development 
 of its average student, but of the boy above or 
 below the normal standard as well. 
 
 An abridgement of certain ideas which John 
 Mason Tyler expresses in "Growth and Educa- 
 tion," will serve to summarise this chapter. 
 
 "During the primary and intermediate years, 
 we are dealing with boys in the stage of prepara- 
 tion for the pubertal metamorphosis. They 
 resemble adults about as closely as caterpillars 
 resemble butterflies. Their chief business is to 
 grow and to store np material and vitality. They 
 have few intellectual interests. It is predomin- 
 
46 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 antly a motor period. Muscular exercise is essen- 
 tial to stimulate digestion, assimilation, and 
 healthy growth. 
 
 "The curriculum of each form must be suited 
 to the stage of development and the needs of the 
 boy or youth. The needs of the child, and the 
 boy, and the youth, are quite different. The cur- 
 riculum, and the system and mode of education, 
 must differ correspondingly. The immediate end 
 and purpose of the work in each grade is peculiar 
 and unique. What would be useful and bene- 
 ficent in the upper school may be harmful in the 
 lower, and vice versa. In no one of these forms 
 is the boy like a man. In the lower forms he 
 differs so completely that we may easily fail 
 altogether to understand his constitution, condi- 
 tion, and needs. The more the child differs from 
 us, the greater is our difficulty in framing a 
 course of exercise suited to his stage of growth 
 and development. A good curriculum for the 
 child in the primary forms will probably appear 
 entirely childish and useless to the average adult 
 mind. Until we recognise these facts we can not 
 hope to gain the co-operation of Nature in our 
 efforts to obtain strong and efficient men." * 
 
 1 Growth and Education ; Tyler. 
 
Ill 
 
 PHYSICAL EDUCATION 
 
 AS the boy's physical, mental, moral 
 and social natures have been assumed 
 worthy of equal care and thought, no 
 importance can be specially attached 
 to the order in which these natures are discussed. 
 The sequence which has been adhered to how- 
 ever, is rather the natural order. The child, first 
 of all is a physical being; soon he expresses his 
 power for mental development, and later, of 
 moral distinction. His social instinct is in many 
 ways the last to appear, and his preparation for 
 participation in society extends nominally 
 throughout the whole of his school and college 
 career. So with this justification of the order, 
 the boy's physical education should first be dealt 
 with. 
 
 Froebel has said that "It does not follow that 
 the man, especially in boyhood, knows his body, 
 because it is so near to him, nor that he can use 
 his limbs because that they are one with him. 
 We often hear boys admonished not to be so 
 awkward, and this particularly in walks of life 
 
 47 
 
48 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 that do not pay regular attention to all-sided 
 bodily activity in childhood and early boyhood. 
 
 "We see that men in whom the culture of 
 mind and body have not kept pace with each 
 other, at certain times and under certain cir- 
 cumstances, do not know what to do with their 
 body. Nay, many a one seems to feel his body 
 and his limbs to be a burden to himself. 
 
 "The occasional cultivation of the body in 
 domestic occupations may do much to remedy 
 this. But in almost all cases this is very subor- 
 dinate, and generally exercises the body only 
 one-sidedly. Besides, a man is to know not only 
 his power but also the means for applying it; 
 and this can be attained only by means of an all- 
 sided, equal cultivation of the body and its parts 
 as the medium and expression of mental culture. 
 
 "An active, vigorous body, in all conditions 
 and pursuits of life, and a dignified bearing and 
 attitude of the body, can only result from all- 
 sided cultivation of the body, as bearer of the 
 mind. Surely a great deal of rudeness, ill- 
 mannerliness, and impropriety would disappear 
 from boyhood, and corresponding admonitions 
 would become less frequent, if we gave our boys 
 regular, all-sided bodily training, proceeding 
 from the simple to the complex, based on their 
 mental culture, and keeping pace with it 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION 49 
 
 "The will, as such, does not yet control the 
 body at all times; therefore; the body should be 
 enabled to obey the mind implicitly at all times, 
 as in the case of a musical performer. Without 
 such cultivation of the body, education can never 
 attain its object, which is perfect human culture. 
 Therefore, the body, like the mind, should in 
 this respect pass through a true school, though 
 not in a one-sided manner; and regular physical 
 exercises, proceeding from the simple to the com- 
 plex, based on the mental development, are a 
 proper subject of instruction in every school. 
 
 "But bodily exercises have yet another im- 
 portant side; they lead the human being (here 
 the boy) subsequently to a vivid knowledge of 
 the inner structure of his body ; for the boy feels 
 with special vividness the inner mutual connec- 
 tion in the activity of his members. These per- 
 ceptions, aided only by tolerably good sketches of 
 the inner structure of man, must lead to the vivid 
 knowledge of this structure, and induce, at least, 
 a living interest in the care and consideration of 
 the body." 1 
 
 This is a platform upon which the humanists 
 of the Renaissance unite with the humanists of 
 
 ^roebel's Education of Man; Hailmann. 
 Pp. 248, 249, 250. 
 
(0 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 to-day, who hold that the real purpose of physical 
 education is to learn respect for the body, and ft 
 knowledge, a cultivation, and a control of it. It 
 is not meant that the little boy should have the 
 muscles or weight of a giant, but that his growth 
 should be normal, his health perfect, and his 
 body pure, supple and graceful one for which 
 he need have no shame. Yet the featuring of 
 physical education should not be so pronounced 
 as to produce too much consideration of self, 
 for the less a lad's thoughts are consciously 
 directed to his physical welfare, the less likely 
 he is to fall heir to the ills of the flesh. 
 
 In connection with ills, so many of the or- 
 dinary indispositions of boyhood are traceable to 
 irregularity of the bowels, that it is necessary to 
 note the first insurance against petty maladies 
 in the school, is to be certain that the boy has a 
 fixed time each day for a passage. This, prefer- 
 ably, should come after breakfast, and the 
 schedule of the day so arranged, and other in- 
 terests so postponed, as to allow nothing to inter- 
 fere with its regularity. The greater diseases 
 have no cause to occur at school at all, and it i 
 a well-established fact, that measles, mumps, 
 chicken-pox, etc., never break out in the middle 
 or at the close of a term, but always at the begin- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION II 
 
 ning, which really shows how dangerous vaca- 
 tions are! 
 
 The table on page 42, indicates that a boy's 
 growth is not constant from year to year. Each 
 system or part of his body has its own particular 
 period of rapid increase. Physical development 
 suffers at the expense of intellectual, and vice 
 versa, so there is still hope for the over-grown 
 boy of thirteen or fourteen who has not yet 
 "wakened up." 
 
 We depend chiefly upon the muscles to guar- 
 antee healthy adult life. In the play of the boy, 
 the heavy muscles re-act upon the vital organs 
 and stimulate their development. As has already 
 been shown, the boy up to and through his later 
 childhood is distinctly a motor being. He learns 
 more or less fortuitously, stores facts gained 
 from experiences in his mind, and draws them 
 forth to organise them at a later age. Puberty 
 comes later to the boy who leads an active life 
 in the open air, away from undue nervous stimu- 
 lation or excitement. It is well to postpone this 
 period as long as possible and to allow the lad 
 to store up all available resources against that 
 time of bodily re-adjustment. The morbidity 
 that the boy may experience at this period, may 
 be attributed to the depressing of his nervous 
 owing to the deflection of all his energy 
 
52 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 towards physical growth, and to the consequent 
 lowered vitality of the body. A larger lung 
 capacity, and more oxygen, will forestall or coun- 
 teract such conditions, and these are to be se- 
 cured through muscular exercises and fresh air. 
 
 "Gymnastics twice a week" is no panacea for 
 the boy. He must have daily open-air activities, 
 which will bring his larger muscles into play, and 
 will fill meanwhile, his lungs with the pure 
 oxygen of the country. This is even more im- 
 portant than the boy's present intellectual train- 
 ing, for the ability to acquire the latter depends 
 upon his capacity to absorb the former. The 
 muscles re-act either directly or indirectly upon 
 the brain, as well as upon the heart and lungs 
 and viscera. Tyler says that the subject of 
 physical training demands most careful atten- 
 tion because "the will is trained most easily and 
 effectively through muscular effort, especially 
 during the years of immaturity of the tissues of 
 the higher centres of the brain." 1 
 
 The primary means of physical training are 
 twofold ; Play and Gymnastics. ' * Play is super- 
 fluous energy over and above what is necessary 
 to digest, breathe, and keep the heart and organic 
 processes going; and most children who can not 
 
 1 Growth and Education ; Tyler. P. 201. 
 
 f 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION ft 
 
 play, can neither study nor work without over- 
 drawing their resources of vitality . . . . 
 Play is motor poetry. Too early distinctions 
 between play and work should not be taught. 
 Education should really begin with directing 
 childish sports aright. Froebel thought it the 
 purest and most spiritual activity of childhood, 
 and the germinal leaves of all later life. School- 
 ing that lacks recreation favors dulness, for play 
 makes the mind alert, and its joy helps all ana- 
 bolic activities. ' ' 1 
 
 The games of boys from seven to twelve, ac- 
 cording to Dr. Luther H. Gulick, are co-opera- 
 tive, but competitive. From twelve to fourteen 
 the inclination for team-work appears. He says 
 that running games are the earliest, and that 
 these in turn are followed by throwing and 
 jumping. He fails to classify those sports that 
 are dear to the heart of every lad ; swimming and 
 skating. What is a closer touch with nature than 
 a strong red-blooded boy, thrusting himself 
 vigorously yet lithely forward through the clear, 
 rippling water; or the same lad, well-clad, with 
 rosy cheeks and snapping eyes, skimming grace- 
 fully over the winter lake! And both these 
 
 1 Youth; G. Stanley Hall. Pp. 115, 113. 
 
14 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 sports combine, with a splendid exercise of the 
 whole body, a rare opportunity for competition. 
 Besides the physical value gained from spon- 
 taneous exercise in the form of play, there is 
 the mental value equally great. " Watch/' for 
 instance, ' * even a game of tag. The sense-organs 
 are all alert. The attention is focussed on one 
 point. This is the best means of training the 
 will, for close attention to one thing, is one of 
 the best forms of will-power. The child must 
 'size up' the situation, and grasp the opportunity 
 once for all. He can not stand 'shivering on the 
 brink of action' as the adult so frequently does. 
 Thinking, willing, and doing are united, not 
 separated. The same movement is repeated until 
 perfected, and with undiminished interest. The 
 child forgets himself and loses shyness and self- 
 consciousness ; for skill, thought, place and 
 strategy constantly increase. On the playground 
 he learns far more than the rudiments of the 
 science of success in life .... The con- 
 ception of fair and unfair play is almost the 
 first genuine and spontaneous moral distinction 
 that the boy makes. He is still very hazy in his 
 ideas of rights of property, and is anything but 
 clear in his theories as to the necessity of truth- 
 fulness." 1 
 
 1 Growth and Education ; Tyler. P. 208. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION 65 
 
 The obligation of the sub-preparatory school in 
 providing ample play facilities for the boy, is 
 obvious. Even day-schools both public and 
 private, are realising more and more the same 
 necessity, and the boarding-school, situated as 
 it is in the country, should not only be abreast of 
 the times, but in advance of them. Let some of 
 the arduous book work be reserved for later 
 years. The mind, when more mature, will grasp 
 the subject more readily, and let the time for 
 play be long and merry. In addition to after- 
 noon recreations, short periods of relaxation 
 should alternate with lesson hours, to relieve 
 causes of unrest, nervousness and sexual irrita- 
 tion. 
 
 While play is activity for its own sake, gym- 
 nastic exercises have for their purpose, the 
 prescribed strengthening of some weak organ of 
 the body. They need expert supervision and 
 direction, so that the growing boy may not 
 misuse his powers or neglect to exercise the parts 
 which need developing. For the young boy, the 
 gymnasium should never prove more than an 
 easy supplement to his play. Heavy apparatus 
 work, especially by pre-pubertal boys, does not 
 result in extraordinary muscular development. 
 It has, if anything, an opposite tendency. We 
 want a normally developed lad, and the lightest 
 
56 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 of apparatus will make him so. Gymnastic ex- 
 ercises should, above all else, be so directed, as 
 to promote poise, dignity and gracefulness of 
 carriage, a co-ordination of muscles, and well- 
 developed joints. 
 
 Athletics, meaning track teams and the like, 
 football, rowing, and other heavy work, should 
 be done under the surveillance of a thoroughly 
 competent physical instructor to assure against 
 over-indulgence therein. Boys under fourteen 
 are always keen enough to wish to imitate the 
 achievements of older fellows, and herein lies 
 one particular argument in favor of absolutely 
 distinct upper and lower schools. When the 
 segregation is complete, there is less likelihood of 
 the young boys going into heavy gymnastics 
 too soon, and becoming, perhaps, injuriously 
 affected for life. 
 
 In camp, or in the lower school, the gymnastics 
 for the day can be practically covered by a set- 
 ting-up drill immediately upon arising, after 
 which should come a plunge or a "shower," a 
 brisk rubbing down, and a hasty dressing. In 
 fine weather a run before breakfast may be sub- 
 stituted for the calisthenics, but if this is of any 
 appreciable length, say over half a mile, it ia 
 better that the boy should have a glass of milk 
 and biscuits before he starts out. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION 57 
 
 This leads on to the question of meals, which 
 more properly is left for special discussion until 
 the administration of the school comes under 
 notice. The importance of sufficient food, pro- 
 perly prepared, and served at the right time, 
 can not be underestimated. The fuel which keeps 
 in motion the machinery of the small boy must 
 be neither economised in quantity or quality, 
 nor slighted in its preparation and service. 
 
 So many parents are fearful of young boys 
 participating in one sport or another, and parti- 
 cularly in foot-ball. The physical examination 
 should establish the fact whether a boy is fit to 
 follow a certain exercise or not, and the ap- 
 prehension of accident should not debar him 
 from the pleasure of the sport, deprive him of 
 the many benefits that it contributes, or en- 
 courage a spirit of timidity and cowardice in the 
 boy himself. 
 
IV 
 
 INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION 
 
 IN a public grammar school, the intellectual 
 development of the pupil depends to a 
 great degree upon the scope of its curri- 
 culum. In the junior boarding-school 
 there are additional factors that assist or retard 
 the lad's mental progress. The tone of the 
 school, the personnel of the staff, the character of 
 the comrades with whom the boy is constantly 
 in touch, all have their bearing upon the nor- 
 mality and extent of his intellectual growth. In 
 addition, there stands the influence of a right 
 physical education discussed in the foregoing 
 chapter. The interdependence of the physical 
 and mental natures then, asserts itself at the 
 very outset, and that relation affects both the 
 aim of the curriculum and its formulation. We 
 must remember that the boy who lacks good red 
 blood, has poverty of thought, and is deficient 
 in clearness of expression as well as in clearness 
 of complexion. "With this hypothesis in mind 
 then, the general aim of the boy's intellectual 
 education may take this form : The stimulation of 
 
 68 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION II 
 
 high mental efficiency in the various fields of 
 elementary learning, and the fostering of an 
 ideal in the lad's mind that will combine a high 
 standard of perfection together with a desire to 
 achieve results in himself, both intellectual, 
 physical, moral, and social. This is but another 
 phrasing of the Froebelian principles of self- 
 activity and unity, for it is wished that the boy's 
 efforts shall be spontaneous, from within out, 
 tending meanwhile to unify in himself the qual- 
 ities necessary for the perfect man, as a perfect 
 expression of the Absolute. 
 
 It is not so hard to harmonise with these con- 
 ditions, the position of the formal disciplinarian. 
 His doctrine is by no means hors de combat be- 
 fore the onslaught of many present-day educa- 
 tionalists. The theory that the same mental 
 power developed through the pursuit of a given 
 study or interest, extends in general to the 
 development of all studies and interests, cer- 
 tainly offers encouragement to pupil and in- 
 structor alike. It stimulates the self-develop- 
 ment of the boy by promising him that problems 
 conquered in one place, simplify and assist the 
 solution of others that he may meet with else- 
 where. The discussion as to the validity of 
 formal discipline is, on the whole, merely an op- 
 portunity for pedagogic argument, for educators 
 
60 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 who support the theory as well as those who do 
 not, both unite in an evaluation of apperception, 
 and that indeed is the psychological point of im- 
 portance to the teacher. 
 
 Spencer says "That as political governments, 
 to be efficient, must grow from within, and not 
 be imposed from without, so there is a natural 
 process of mental evolution which is not to be 
 disturbed without injury/' He points out fur- 
 ther that, as has been already indicated; "We 
 are now coming to the conviction that body and 
 mind must both be cared for, and the whole being 
 unfolded. 7 ' 1 
 
 The essentially new and practical method of 
 teaching, instead of presenting abstract truths in 
 a didactic way, is of leading the boy to think in 
 terms of concrete facts. Procedure must be 
 from the simple to the complex, from the em- 
 pirical to the rational. This education is rather 
 informal, and is based on the saying that "Ex- 
 perience is the best teacher." Bagley objects to 
 the process on the grounds that it is unsys- 
 tematic and uneconomical. Perhaps this is so in 
 the secondary school, where the boy is mature 
 enough to profit from the "scientific method" of 
 teaching, but while he is still in the lower school, 
 
 1 Education ; Spencer. P. 90. 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION 1 
 
 the bounds for his mental activities should not 
 be too closely set, but the line of least resistance 
 is not always the line of right resistance. 
 
 The years from eight to twelve inclusive, that 
 constitute the greater portion of the second cycle, 
 make up the formative period of the boy's life. 
 At the beginning of this period says Bagley, 
 "The brain practically completes its develop- 
 ment as far as weight and size are concerned, 
 and the changes that this organ subsequently 
 undergoes are due to internal organisation the 
 knitting together of different sense areas, the 
 ripening of the association centres, and the for- 
 mation of functional connections between 
 neurones. Expressed in another way this means 
 that the years from eight to twelve are the habit- 
 forming period, for habit, on its physiological 
 side, is the making permanent of pathways of 
 nervous discharge ... In contrast to the 
 susceptibility to fatigue and disease that marks 
 the transition period (the years from six to 
 eight) the years from eight to twelve show a com- 
 parative immunity to both of these energy-ex- 
 hausting forces. Some authorities indeed, main- 
 tain that the child fatigues easily at this time, 
 but all appear to agree that he recovers very 
 rapidly from fatigue and that a reasonable 
 amount of strain and effort is now quite without 
 
62 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 the disastrous results which overwork may easily 
 produce in the preceding and in the following 
 period. " l 
 
 As these then, are the years of plasticity and 
 habit-forming, the years when the boy's suscep- 
 tibility to fatigue is at its minimum, the years 
 when the play interest is strong and constant, a 
 curriculum may be presented, which will give the 
 lad short, but regular periods of intensive study. 
 Under this condition, prompted by his own spon- 
 taneous interest, and encouraged by a sympa- 
 thetic teacher, he may lay in his store of elemen- 
 tary knowledge necessary to equip him fully for 
 his work in the secondary school. 
 
 The curriculum of the public school is more 
 or less utilitarian in its temper. It is forced into 
 being so, because it has to prepare a boy as com- 
 pletely as it can for his work in the world a 
 boy who, in twenty-four cases out of twenty-five, 
 leaves school at the age of fourteen. Fortunately 
 the private school is not a slave to such a neces- 
 sity. As well as giving the boy a better oppor- 
 tunity for physical development, it can reckon 
 with his psychological growth, and provide him, 
 at the age of easiest receptivity, with the ele- 
 
 1 The Educative Process ; Wm. C. Bagley. Pp. 
 190, 191. 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION 61 
 
 ments of the knowledge that he will need in yean 
 to come. The fixing of the lesson curriculum 
 then, depends not only upon the introduction of 
 subjects of immediate value to him, such as the 
 Mother Tongue, Writing and Arithmetic, but 
 those of future value as well; History and Geo- 
 graphy, the Modern Languages, Nature Study, 
 Latin, Music, Dancing and other near-Gymnas- 
 tics, Drawing, and the various forms of Manual 
 Training. The details of these subjects will all 
 be dealt with in the chapter on "The Curricu- 
 lum." In considering the curriculum however, 
 one should not lose sight of the fact that the 
 boy 's intellectual training, is not to be conducted 
 purely for the sake of subject-content, but to 
 promote enquiry, to culture the whole child, and 
 to train his powers of observation. 
 
 But intellectual education does not start with 
 the lad's advent at the junior boarding-school. 
 It should have begun as he lay in his cradle. 
 During the years of infancy and early childhood, 
 he should have been properly cared for and 
 trained, and have had certain habits of person 
 and character grounded before he leaves hia 
 home. 
 
 Dr. Henderson calls attention to the fact that 
 "There are even institutions, running in the 
 name of education, which boast of the number of 
 
64 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 students who are annually squeezed out. It may 
 be an odd way of looking at it, but this sounds 
 to me like boasting of one's own inefficiency, and 
 I think we should all regard such an operation 
 as quite the thing it is. ' ' l The inefficiency of 
 the sub-preparatory boarding-school in America 
 has not been eliminated as yet, but the awakening 
 interest in this particular phase of educational 
 work, gives hope of speedy improvement. The 
 function of the school is rather to mould and 
 fashion aright the clay within its hands, than to 
 drop the boy, who perhaps is not incorrigible, but 
 merely a harder problem to solve than the others. 
 The chief legitimate excuse that the school may 
 offer for failure lies in the attitude of American 
 parents toward the administration of effective 
 correctives to boys who occasionally need them. 
 Usually speaking, there is surely a chance for 
 the difficult boy, if he is carefully and lovingly 
 studied, and given the out-of-door life that he 
 needs. A crisp winter's day in God's open 
 country, is enough to arouse the worst dullard to 
 action. If he does not respond to this simple 
 treatment, review his physical condition, and 
 see if the cause of the trouble may not be found 
 
 1 Education and the Larger Life ; Henderson. 
 P. 112. 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION 65 
 
 there. The words of Montaigne must be remem- 
 bered ' * It is not a mind, it is not a body that we 
 erect, but it is man, and we must not make two 
 parts of him. 7 ' 1 
 
 Assays; Montaigne Dent's Ed. Vol. I. P. 
 244. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 IN the matter of moral training, the respon- 
 sibility of the lower school might be less, 
 were not the second cycle so distinctly the 
 formative period. Up to the age of seven 
 or eight, as has been earlier noted, the boy, is 
 simply unmoral; then his training must begin 
 in earnest. Moral education is by no means a 
 trivial task that may be relegated to Morning 
 Prayers and the Sunday School. It needs as 
 sound and as constant a plan of action as phy- 
 sical or mental training, yet in this case the 
 results are to be achieved through suggestion, 
 emulation and loving confidence, rather than by 
 impression or expression. Its object is to lead 
 the lad to realise his ethical obligations to society 
 and to himself, and to govern his daily life in 
 accordance with the moral ideal which he must 
 formulate for himself. 
 
 Moral training should suggest the contribu- 
 tion of ethical elements to the formation of char- 
 acter. The word "suggest'* is used advisedly, 
 for it seems as if character building should be 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 67 
 
 spontaneous instead of coerced, and that more 
 may be accomplished in this line by suggestion, 
 than by exhortation or the forcing home of 
 precept. A good example is the concrete form of 
 good advice, and as imitation and hero-worship 
 are strong qualities in the pre-adolescent, who- 
 ever stands before him as model, should be a 
 worthy copy. 
 
 That expression of John MacCunn's "the 
 moral ideal" l epitomises the aim of moral edu- 
 cation. It must be borne in mind, in the effort 
 to help the boy in establishing his ideal, that as 
 long as there is such a thing as the perversity of 
 human nature, there will be some antagonism to 
 good. Hence the reason why the lesson of ethical 
 content should be less directly presented than 
 for example, gymnastic exercises planned for 
 physical development and appealing to the lower 
 or easier nature of the boy, or some work in the 
 school arts or sciences arranged for intellectual 
 culture. Calisthenics do not reach the "inner 
 man" directly and arouse the conflict of his dual 
 natures; neither do reading, writing and arith- 
 metic stir up at most, more than a contention 
 with mental and physical laziness! But when 
 moral training is reached, a situation is un- 
 
 1 The Making of Character ; John MacCunn. 
 
68 YOUNG BOTS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 covered wherein the flesh warreth against the 
 spirit; and although this warfare may not be 
 omitted, it can be directed, with resultant benefit 
 to the boy, along the line of right resistance. 
 
 It is a rather strong Calvinistic doctrine which 
 asserts that a child is born in sin and has but a 
 remote chance of salvation. If we accept a 
 Biblical basis at all for the argument to rest 
 upon, it seems fairer to believe that "God saw 
 every thing that he had made, and, behold, it 
 was very good." l And so the boy is by nature, 
 or, as created, good. But the conditions of 
 society under which he has to live, are apt to 
 force an unnaturalness that must often seek an 
 outlet in wrong-doing. ' ' Wrong " is a difficult ex- 
 pression to define, but it means any thought or 
 act opposed to the internal or external welfare 
 of the individual and of others. If good were 
 always ascendant, no moral standard would be 
 required, for the goodness of all things would 
 eliminate its necessity. We should all think 
 rightly, and act rightly, because it would be im- 
 possible to do otherwise. Perfection then, would 
 not necessarily imply character, for character is 
 formed out of the conflict between the spiritual 
 and material in man. 
 
 1 The Bible; Generis I, 31. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 99 
 
 Under the conditions of life as they exist how- 
 ever, character is essential, and the obligation of 
 the moral imperative to distinguish between 
 right and wrong, and to choose the right is 
 plainly important. 
 
 The more complex the social fabric, the greater 
 a boy's delinquencies are apt to be, although 
 they may not appear as great on the surface, as 
 the digressions of a less intricate civilisation. 
 The more a pampered son of wealth the boy has 
 been, the more repressive his life and the fewer 
 his opportunities to have lived out the history 
 of the race. Really the street Arab has an ad- 
 vantage over his otherwise more favored brother, 
 having lived his life beyond the devitalising pale 
 of social conventions. Three fallacious prin- 
 ciples have underlain the rearing of recent gene- 
 rations of the plutocracy : First, the theory that 
 ignorance means innocence; second, over-indul- 
 gence; and third, irresponsibility and lack of 
 self-control. It is not strange then, that the sub- 
 preparatory boarding-school has an intricate 
 riddle to solve in the moral training of its boys. 
 
 In the false ideas stated above, the third may 
 be taken to include the results of the first two. 
 But the boy is scarcely to blame for his lack of 
 self-control, until his home influence has 
 diminished sufficiently for he himself to realise 
 
70 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 his need. Simultaneously with this recognition, 
 he should have the chance to learn what self- 
 control is and how vast is its consequence. The 
 occasion is provided by the junior boarding- 
 school. 
 
 In this direction, it is the preliminary duty of 
 the school to give the lad a natural environment. 
 This does not mean isolation like Rousseau's 
 "Emile." Only let him start far enough back 
 in the epochs of culture, in company with a suffi- 
 cient number of suitable comrades, and come to 
 the conclusion empirically, that other individuals 
 of similar status have rights corresponding to his 
 own. Should this lead to quarrels, no matter, 
 for it is better, morally, to fight out differences 
 and forget them, than to cry " Peace, Peace, 
 when there is no peace. " 
 
 The next step is to acquaint the boy with the 
 meaning of constituted authority. It is im- 
 perative that the lad who at maturity will be in 
 the ruling classes, should himself learn to be an 
 obedient servant. Otherwise he will know but 
 one side of the shield of law. To be successful, 
 the lower school must be monarchic. This plan 
 of government is concretely expressed by Mr. 
 Colin A. Scott in his description of the Abbots- 
 holme School in England of which Dr. Cecil 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 71 
 
 Red die has for many years, been the head- 
 master. 
 
 "The school has indeed become a state, but it 
 is a state of a certain type. This is plainly in- 
 dicated in Dr. Reddie's designation of it as a 
 school for the directing classes, and in the fact 
 that the whole life and management of the school 
 is derived from its monarch. This, however, does 
 not prevent a thoroughly willing system of 
 honorable and honor-loving co-operation, and 
 the great success of the institution in realising 
 the happiness and characters of the pupils raises 
 the question whether a good monarchy is not 
 better than an indifferent democracy. 
 
 ' ' The social features of this remarkable school, 
 which already has a number of off-shoots or 
 colonies in other parts of England, France and 
 Germany (and America), are founded on an in- 
 sight into the real capacities and emotional un- 
 dercurrents of the pupils. As Dr. Reddie claims, 
 the school aims to dimmish competition and in- 
 crease co-operation. This principle is applied 
 in the first place to the natural affections of the 
 boys for each other. The management of the or- 
 dinary boarding-school often tends to sharpen 
 rivalries. In class work one boy is set against 
 another. Close friendships among the boys are 
 carefully watched and broken up in the fear of 
 
72 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 unmentionable evils. Such watchfulness against 
 vice becomes so marked at times that it actually 
 suggests its commission. 
 
 "Dr. Reddie on the contrary, believes rather 
 in encouraging affection for the purpose of pro- 
 moting its best and purest development. He 
 thinks that such a spirit is the surest protection 
 against impurity, and that the antagonism of 
 competition is more liable to lead to vice. The 
 boys room together in small dormitories, where 
 they are not overlooked by teachers, but are left 
 in a spirit of honorable confidence. The per- 
 sonnel of each dormitory and the influence of 
 one pupil on another are carefully considered, 
 one of the older boys or praefects having a large 
 share of the responsibility. The boys themselves 
 discuss with Dr. Reddie the make-up of their 
 dormitory groups and what habits of manner, 
 conversation, and toilet make for character, 
 health, and a true manly spirit. In such con- 
 ference Dr. Reddie is careful not to go beyond 
 the point of view of the boys themselves, or, at 
 most, such a point of view, obtained from him, 
 as they can successfully carry out. They thus 
 feel that it is an honor to be trusted, and they 
 help one another to be loyal to the confidence 
 reposed in them. There are rules posted which 
 are not too formal or simple, some of them in- 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 73 
 
 deed being esoteric, if not occult. It is evidently 
 considered unnecessary to post a rule which 
 every honorable boy would naturally think of 
 and obey. The rules are issued by the head- 
 master, but they are explained to the boys, and 
 are accepted by them as right. ' ' l 
 
 It is obvious that Dr. Scott is enthusiastic 
 about the school that he describes. It is true 
 that any visitor to ' ' Abbotsholme " is sure to 
 fall a victim to its delightful situation on the 
 hillside above the Dove, and recognise at once 
 the cordial relationship that exists between all 
 the members of the school, the boys and the staff 
 alike. Dr. Reddie's theories of discipline and 
 moral training evidently have much to commend 
 them, and the reason why the school has not 
 flourished as much as it legitimately should have 
 done during the twenty years or more of its 
 existence, lies not so much in its position on 
 physical, moral, or even social training, as in 
 the fact that its curriculum is exceptionally 
 " modern/' and an attempt at "learning by 
 doing" has overshadowed the more substantial 
 framework of intellectual development. 
 
 This digression in support of the monarchic 
 theory has been somewhat lengthy, but concrete 
 
 1 Social Education; Colin A. Scott. Pp. 45-47. 
 
74 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 results of a principle are needed to prove its 
 worth, and at * ' Abbotsholme " at least they may 
 be found. The headmaster is the dictator, the 
 under-masters his lieutenants, supported by, and 
 supporting him. The youngster is a hero- 
 worshipper, and if the King is his hero, his obe- 
 dience will be yielded through adoration. Obe- 
 dience won through love, is the ideal way of 
 establishing that most excellent habit, and in 
 yielding obedience to the Head, the boy will 
 naturally and in the course of time come to see 
 his obligation of obedience to still higher powers, 
 his country and his God. At the same time there 
 develops a response to the duty of obeying his 
 inner self, his conscience the God within him. 
 The logic of this argument is manifest, when one 
 stops to consider that the concrete appeals to the 
 boy, hence the anthropomorphic expression of 
 power which is necessary. 
 
 The question now arises: "Suppose this 
 theory fails to function ; suppose the boy through 
 ignorance or wilfullness does not obeyt" The 
 answer is, that the school should see to it that he 
 does. Parents should not place their sons in 
 charge of a headmaster whom they are not will- 
 ing to vest with absolute parental authority. 
 Obedience is very much a matter of habit, but 
 it is a habit that sits lightly upon the shoulders 
 
MORAL EDUCATION ?$ 
 
 of the American child. It is quite possible that 
 the school is responsible in a slight degree that 
 is, the public school that such a situation exists, 
 for it has featured in its teaching of American 
 history the glorious freedom of the citizens of 
 the great Republic, rather than bringing out the 
 more philosophical aspect that true liberty is 
 obedience to law. Another present-day influence 
 in the wrong direction is the liberal distribution 
 of the i ' Comic Supplement ' ' to the Sunday news- 
 papers, which puts mischief at a premium and 
 makes a joke of punishment. Greater than either 
 of these, is the irresponsibility of the parents 
 themselves and their attitude towards any sys- 
 tematic moral training that requires constant 
 effort and no small amount of patience. 
 
 Writing upon the subject of "Making Chil- 
 dren Mind," Elise Morris Underbill, a well- 
 known kindergarten worker, has to say, "The 
 modern child does not obey immediately and un- 
 questioningly. That is beyond dispute. His fail- 
 ure to do so would seem to be due to the modern 
 parent's inability to command wisely; for the 
 reasons of a child's misbehavior may nearly 
 always be found in the attitude of the people who 
 have authority over him. There is too little 
 examination into the motives of his acts, too little 
 relation of the punishment to the offence . . . 
 
71 TOTJNQ BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 Many painstaking and conscientious parents, 
 who bring up their children not by instinct and 
 brute force, but thoughtfully and with prayers, 
 make a serious error in reasoning out the why 
 and wherefore of every command until the young 
 tyrants refuse to make any move whatsoever 
 until its cause, meanings, and effects have been 
 made perfectly clear and satisfactory to them. 
 This method is perhaps legitimate after the child 
 has reached years of discretion whenever they 
 may be! but it should not be practiced until 
 he has learned to obey unquestioningly ; for if it 
 is employed in early years, the parent (or 
 teacher), is practically saying: 
 " 'You may know what is best rather than I.' 1 
 If the obedience-habit does not become fixed 
 through love, it must come somehow, and seem- 
 ingly the only other way, is through fear, and 
 through such punishment as shall be necessary 
 to impress upon the boy's mind the law of cause 
 and effect and its social relation. Punishment 
 for young boys should never take the form of a 
 detention that prevents daily exercise in the open 
 air, nor should it interfere too much with those 
 out-of-door activities, in the pursuit of which he 
 
 l Munsey's Magazine, February, 1911. Pp. 
 636, 638. 
 
MORAL EDUCATION T7 
 
 is to outgrow his savagery and work off those 
 "animal spirits " the exuberance of which is 
 the charm and glory of boyhood. "Punishment 
 in kind" and deprivations from anticipated 
 pleasures are usually effective if judiciously 
 used, but untactfully appropriated as a means of 
 discipline, may serve to fix the master as a tyrant 
 in the mind of the boy. For a normal healthy 
 boy, who may on occasion really need punish- 
 ment, there is nothing more salutary in its effect 
 than the good old "birch," although a defence of 
 corporal punishment is apt to stigmatise one as 
 an educational heretic. An inexperienced master 
 is sure to be more in favor of whipping a boy for 
 some delinquency than one who has grown wiser 
 in his experience of dealing with boys. Yet no 
 matter how many years have added to one's 
 knowledge of the boy, and contributed to various 
 tactful and effective methods of management, 
 there is still a great moral effect to be had, by 
 the privilege keeping the rod in the background, 
 even if its use is so infrequent as to be prac- 
 tically nil. 
 
 With the theory of biologic recapitulation still 
 in mind, a third step in the moral education of 
 the boy is now presented. The lad is still in a 
 primitive epoch, the only conscious law of which, 
 ig th* law of self-preservation. His interprets- 
 
78 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 tion of self-preservation, includes the care of 
 himself and the gaining of such things as con- 
 tribute to his happiness and comfort. If the boy 
 is now taught that he may find his own good in 
 seeking the good of others, the common-place 
 form of self-interest termed selfishness, will be 
 supplanted by a recognition that the welfare of 
 others is essential for the establishment of social 
 conditions under which he himself will be best 
 able to profit. This teaching comes not through 
 the abandoning of conventionalities, nor by love 
 or chastisement. It is the outcome of the in- 
 timate friendship of master and pupil. Here 
 the personal influence of the master is at its 
 zenith, and here those teachers fail who are in- 
 sincere or indifferent in their work. Common- 
 sense, physical virility and mental power are 
 stronger suggestions to the lad than abstract 
 virtues ; yet all these are the bricks that he needs 
 for his moral structure. 
 
 Another aid to moral training which is social 
 in its character, is the democratic ideal. It sets 
 forth the fact that whatever benefits the indivi- 
 dual benefits the group, and vice versa. A master 
 can make use of this theory in his management 
 of boys, by showing the necessity and reward of 
 working together for the common weal, and leav- 
 ing the adjustment of affairs to the hands of the 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 7 
 
 boys when one member of the group may not be 
 co-operating with the others. This must be 
 diplomatically done however, and all direct effort 
 to set the group upon or against one individual 
 delinquent must be avoided, for the stimulus 
 for working together should come, if rightly en- 
 couraged, from the boys themselves. There is no 
 question that this plan is of strong ethical and 
 moral content, as it serves to develop unselfish- 
 ness and self-control, and it is certainly applic- 
 able to a community that aspires to democracy. 
 
 There is no reason, logically, why the boy 
 should be carried further into the fine points 
 of ethics, than he is in the science of mathe- 
 matics. As the harder problems of algebra are 
 left to adolescence, so all that is required, is to 
 implant the * ' school arts ' ' of morals in boyhood, 
 and leave the more spiritual and ethical aspects 
 of his moral education to later years. 
 
 A boy then, who has thus learned self-control, 
 is the master of every situation he may be called 
 upon to face. Evil of every sort and nature 
 temper, dishonesty, intemperance, indecency, 
 hate, revenge, the cigarette-habit, and the like 
 are reducible to lack of self-restraint. An 
 earnest desire for right, and an earnest effort to 
 attain it, form the only true prayer, and an "Oh- 
 Lord-forgive-me" accomplishes little in the re- 
 
80 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 mission of sins and nothing towards their atone- 
 ment. 
 
 Moral education may then be summarised as 
 follows: (1) So lead the boy that he will realise 
 the necessity of establishing the moral ideal for 
 himself, (2) point out the value and necessity of 
 self-control, trusting that the boy will learn this 
 lesson voluntarily rather than through force of 
 circumstances, (3) see that the method is one of 
 suggestion instead of constant command, and 
 (4) whether the school is monarchic or demo- 
 cratic in its position, keep the social side of moral 
 training constantly in view. 
 
 A final question now arises, "How great an 
 agent of moral education is the Church?" The 
 school is a constant environment for the boy, 
 the Church, which is probably vague and mys- 
 terious to him, is merely an intermittent one. 
 If there is a substantial religious undertone 'to 
 the school, and there is no reason why the broad 
 principles of Christianity should not underlie all 
 teaching, ethical and otherwise, as well as the 
 examples set in daily life, the Church should not 
 feel that the spiritual life of the boy is unrecog- 
 nised or uncared for. There are certainly strong 
 arguments against sectarian influences and theo- 
 logical teaching, unless the institution be a 
 church school, and represent some particular 
 
MORAL EDUCATION 81 
 
 faith. Religion, on the contrary, should play its 
 part, but more in the hourly experiences of the 
 masters and the boys, than during the short 
 period on Sunday devoted to Bible study. Here, 
 perhaps, it is well worth noting, that in order to 
 secure a homogeneous mass, it is better that boys 
 of too widely divergent creeds or races should 
 not be thrown together in the same group. 
 
 Every boarding-school should be equipped with 
 a chapel, where a brief service may be held once 
 a day, preferably at eventide, as that is perhaps 
 a period of the day when the boy may be more 
 susceptible to the power of the service, than at 
 any other time. Reverence during the exercises 
 should be insisted upon, and the service itself 
 should never give cause for inattention, on ac- 
 count of undue length, or content unintelligible 
 to the mind of the boy. 
 
VI 
 SOCIAL EDUCATION 
 
 IN this chapter there is a two-fold signifi- 
 cance to the word "social": (I) its mean- 
 ing in respect to co-operative activities, and 
 (2) its purely humanistic aspect, that of 
 reference to the society of the favored classes. 
 
 In regard to the first interpretation, it is worth 
 while connoting the fact that there is a well- 
 justified and growing tendency to encourage 
 unified work and reciprocative activities both in 
 the class-room and on the recreation field. The 
 lessons learned through self-organized group- 
 work are readily apperceived, and stimulate an 
 " esprit de corps" which remains an influence in 
 the boy's life long after the lessons are put 
 aside. This side of social education however, is 
 really more a method suggested for the attain- 
 ment of the intellectual, than a distinct phase 
 co-ordinate in importance with physical, mental 
 and moral training. Our attention may be 
 turned, therefore, to a longer consideration of 
 the second meaning. 
 
 82 
 
SOCIAL EDUCATION 83 
 
 Pope says in his first Essay on Morals : l 
 
 'Tis education forms the common mind, 
 Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined. " 
 
 This quotation indicates the need of a watch- 
 ful care being given to the formation of manner- 
 habits during boyhood, so that after adolescence, 
 the youth's deportment may be that of a gentle- 
 man. In discussing Thomas Elyot 's ' ' Institution 
 of a Gentleman" Woodward says: "The theme 
 is that no man may be ' gentle' without personal 
 excellence. It follows naturally that such excel- 
 lence is to be looked for as the fruit of proper 
 education. Now the function of a gentleman is 
 to lead ; his excellence will then be proved by his 
 usefulness in the particular sphere he occupies. 
 The responsibilities of parents are thus not to 
 their children only, but to the State for whose 
 behoof they instruct them. ' ' 
 
 Personal excellence does not consist merely in 
 having a sound body, and active mind, and a 
 good character. It lies in the assembling of these 
 three pre-requisites, out of which a fourth arises ; 
 namely, the power to use the first three judici- 
 ously and pleasingly to others, throughout one's 
 
 1 Essay on Morals ; Alexander Pope. 
 * Education during the Renaissance; W. H. 
 Woodward. P. 96. 
 
84 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 experiences in life. This power may be called the 
 participative appreciation of the niceties of cul- 
 ture, courtesy, manners, or what you will. Its 
 cultivation is the aim of social education. Its 
 possession assures its holder kind consideration 
 and acceptance at the court of culture and re- 
 finement. 
 
 It is a far cry from the crude deportment of a 
 lusty, lively lad, to the bearing of a Chesterfield. 
 But no demand is made for an immediate tran- 
 sition. The call is for a positive ultimate result, 
 and the effort must be made to secure a gradual 
 accretion of social amenities. Our grandmothers 
 contended that " company manners" were im- 
 practicable, yet the support of an opposite belief 
 is by no means an expression of hypocrisy. The 
 social occasion stimulates the deportment requi- 
 site for that occasion. A boy who has had proper 
 training, can command a proper social bearing as 
 well as the boy who has studied German can 
 make use of the tongue should he happen to 
 travel on the Rhine. As the boy grows older, 
 and his touch with the world becomes more 
 regular, his use of social powers, before inter- 
 mittent, will become naturally as constant as the 
 demand upon them. Passive instincts change 
 with adolescence, unconsciously to active in- 
 stincts, providing they have surely been latent 
 
SOCIAL EDUCATION f| 
 
 from the days of the junior school. Like every 
 other subject that penetrates the boy's mind 
 during the formative period, he stores away the 
 facts, and brings them forth for organisation 
 and use in later years. So with this hope within 
 us, we may trust the boy to rise to the exigencies 
 of the social occasion, and at the same time enjoy 
 the free life of boyhood as pictured by Hall. 
 
 "As this period (boyhood) draws to a close 
 and the teens begin, the boy should have fought, 
 whipped and been whipped, used language offen- 
 sive to the prude and to the prim precisian, been 
 in some scrapes, had something to do with bad, 
 if more with good, associates, and been exposed 
 to and already recovering from as many forms 
 of ethical mumps and measles as, by having in 
 mild form now he can be rendered immune to 
 later when they become far more dangerous, be- 
 cause his moral and religious as well as his ra- 
 tional nature is normally rudimentary. He is 
 not depraved, but merely in a savage or half- 
 animal stage, although to a large-brained, large- 
 hearted and truly parental soul that does not 
 call what causes it inconveniences by opprobrious 
 names, an altogether lovable and even fascinat- 
 ing stage. The more we know of boyhood the 
 more narrow and often selfish do adult ideals of 
 it appear. Something is amiss with the lad of 
 
II YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 ten who is very good, studious, industrious, 
 thoughtful, altruistic, quiet, polite, respectful, 
 obedient, gentlemanly, orderly, always in good 
 toilet, docile to reason, who turns away from 
 stories that reek with gore, prefers adult com- 
 panionship to that of his mates, refuses all low 
 associates, speaks standard English, or is as 
 pious and deeply in love with religious services 
 as the typical maiden teacher or the 'A la mode' 
 parent wishes. Such a boy is either under-vital- 
 ised and aenemic and precocious by nature, a 
 repressed, overtrained, conventionalised man- 
 nikin, a hypocrite, as some can become under 
 pressure thus early in life, or else a genius of 
 some kind with a little of all these." 1 
 
 It does lie within the scope of social education 
 nevertheless, to develop in the lad, to a certain 
 degree, a sense of obligation to environment, a 
 social responsibility, which will function in the 
 cognition of the social occasion. The American 
 boy is woefully lacking in this faculty, if we are 
 to trust the testimony of our senses. The sim- 
 plest proof of this assertion is an observation of 
 a small son of wealthy parents in the city at 
 holiday seasons, or at hotels, camps, or travelling, 
 during the longer vacation afforded by the suin- 
 
 1 Youth; G. Stanley HalL P. 236. 
 
SOCIAL EDUCATION S7 
 
 mer. There is a certain forwardness and sub- 
 conscious vulgarity to his mannerisms and ex- 
 pressions, an uneasiness of person, and a lack of 
 straight-forwardness, that are not the character- 
 istics which should be found in a healthy, up- 
 right lad even in a lad running the boyish 
 gamut enumerated by Dr. Hall. 
 
 The sub-preparatory school still has the pro- 
 blem of social training to solve. Until it does 
 so, Bacon's advice to parents is still in place: 
 "But till you can find a School, wherein it is 
 possible for the Master to look after the Manners 
 of his scholars, and can show as great Effects of 
 his Care of forming their Minds to Virtue and 
 their Carriage to good Breeding, as of forming 
 their Tongues to the learned Languages, you 
 must confess, that you have a strange Value for 
 Words, when preferring the Languages of the 
 ancient Greeks and Romans, to that which made 
 'em such brave Men, you think it is worth while 
 to hazard your son's Innocence and Virtue for 
 a little Greek and Latin. " l 
 
 Bacon has this also to say on the subject of 
 manners, and the method indeed that he suggests, 
 supports the argument of this chapter. "Man- 
 ners," says he, "as they call it, about which 
 
 1 Essay on Education; Bacon. Sect. 70. 
 
88 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 children are so often perplex 'd, and have so 
 goodly exhortations made them . . .1 think 
 are rather to be learnt by Example than by 
 Rules : and then Children, if kept out of ill com- 
 pany, will take a pride to behave themselves 
 prettily, after the Fashion of others, perceiving 
 themselves esteemed and commended for it. But 
 if by a little Negligence in this part, the boy 
 should not pull off his Hat, nor make Legs very 
 gracefully, a Dancing-master will sure cure that 
 defect, and wipe off all that Plainness of Nature, 
 which the a-la-mode People call Clownishness. ' ' l 
 There is still another aim of social education. 
 It is the development of the power of initiative 
 and leadership, a capacity that will enable the 
 boy to become the man of the hour. If a boy or 
 youth is physically, mentally and morally pre- 
 pared to step into some executive or administra- 
 tive position, he must not miss the opportunity 
 because he has failed to perceive it; or having 
 seen it, because he lacks the spirit of good fellow- 
 ship to make it his own. It is not necessary to 
 fraternise with one's inferiors providing the 
 inferiority is certain in order to manage them, 
 but a well-directed comaraderie at once insures 
 the position of the holder against violation, and 
 
 1 Essay on Education ; Bacon. Sect 74, 67. 
 
SOCIAL EDUCATION 89 
 
 at the same time commands the loyal support and 
 best efforts of those under his authority. This 
 will hold true whether the young man finds him- 
 self the head of an office force, the president of 
 a growing railway system, the manager of a 
 manufacturing plant, the captain of a vessel, 
 the counsel of a modern corporation, the surgeon 
 at an operating table, the clergyman building up 
 a church, or the headmaster in control of a 
 school. But this capacity fails to fructify if 
 colored by snobbishness, and indeed, though 
 every effort should be made to show the lad that 
 he will be properly privileged to hold positions 
 of political, legal, commercial, mercantile, finan- 
 cial or educational authority, that a mis-use of 
 his power or an undemocratic employment 
 thereof, is unworthy of a patrician. 
 
 The social development of the boy contributes 
 to his personal equation. It is for men of per- 
 sonal equations that the world is calling to-day. 
 It is a false supposition that this element springs 
 full-grown into existence into a man's make-up, 
 after his days at school and college are over. If 
 it does not find its inception in the elementary 
 school, its further development in the secondary 
 school, and, to some extent, its expression in col- 
 lege activities, it is apt to remain a negative 
 element in the man's character. General educa- 
 
90 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 tion must give us the power to apply knowledge 
 as well as to gain it, and the application is social, 
 inasmuch as it affects both the individual and 
 those with whom he may come in touch. This is 
 that knowledge which, as Milton says, "belongs 
 to good men and good governors. ' ' l 
 
 As in the case of moral training, social educa- 
 tion is a slow, indirect process. For that reason 
 it can be started none too soon ; and because the 
 junior boarding-school may offer the first envi- 
 ronment beyond the home, quite properly is it 
 the place for social development to find its in- 
 ception. The procedure should remain unforced, 
 bearing in mind Bacon's advice: "Boys will be 
 unavoidably taught assurance by conversation 
 with Men, when they are brought into it, and 
 that is Time enough." 1 
 
 1 Essay on Education ; Milton. P. 477. 
 1 Essay on Education ; Bacon. Sect. 70. 
 
VII 
 THE DAY'S WORK. 
 
 AFTER due consideration has been 
 given to the theoretical educational 
 requirements of the boy, the question 
 next arises; "What are the condi- 
 tions unuer which these purposes can be prac- 
 ticed most effectively in respect to the lad him- 
 self?" Of course the lesson-curriculum is of 
 prime importance, and yet lesson-work consumes 
 at most not more than one-quarter of the entire 
 day, six hours out of the twenty-four. The 
 remaining eighteen hours, being the majority, 
 justify the first consideration for a distribution 
 that will produce the best results. It seems 
 hardly necessary to defend the programme pre- 
 sented on the following page, and comments can 
 only prove in the nature of an explanation. The 
 arrangement of the daily programme is the 
 pivotal point upon which the well-articulated, 
 quadruple development of the boy depends, and 
 as the success of the school is in direct ratio to 
 his progress, it is obviously important that no 
 efforts be spared in outlining the boy 's routine to 
 best advantage. 
 
 91 
 
YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 Autumn and Winter Spring. 
 
 Rising-bell 
 Breakfast 
 Recreation 
 Roll-call 
 First Hour 
 Second Hour 
 Third Hour 
 Recreation 
 Fourth Hour 
 Fifth Hour 
 Sixth Hour 
 Luncheon 
 Recreations 
 Clean-up 
 Seventh Hour 
 Dinner 
 Chapel 
 Social Hour 
 Bed Hour, 
 
 age 7 to 9 
 Bed Hour, 
 
 age 10 to : 
 Bed Hour, 
 
 6:50 
 
 6:50 
 
 7:30 
 
 7:30 
 
 8:00 8:30 
 
 8:30 8:30 
 
 8:30 
 
 8:30 
 
 8:40 9:15 
 
 8:40 9:15 
 
 9:20 9:55 
 
 9:20 9:55 
 
 10:0010:35 
 
 10:0010:35 
 
 10:3511:00 
 
 10:3511:00 
 
 11:0011:35 
 
 11:0011:35 
 
 11:4012:15 
 
 11:4012:15 
 
 12:2012:50 
 
 12:2012:50 
 
 1:00 
 
 1:00 
 
 2:00 5:00 
 
 2:45 6:00 
 
 5:00 5:20 
 
 6:00 6:20 
 
 5:30 6:15 
 
 2:00 2:45 
 
 6:30 
 
 6:30 
 
 7:20 7:30 
 
 7:20 7:30 
 
 After Chapel 
 
 After Chapel 
 
 7:45_ 8:15 
 
 7:45 8:15 
 
 18:00 8:30 
 
 8 :00 8 :30 
 
 8:15 8:45 
 
 8:15 8:45 
 
THE DAY'S WORK 91 
 
 SUNDAY PROGRAMME ALL TERMS ALIKE 
 
 Rising-bell 7:45 
 
 Breakfast 8 :30 
 
 Bible History 9:30 
 
 Start for Church 10 :30 
 
 Back from Church 12:30 
 
 Dinner 1 : 3Q 
 Recreation (Afternoon) 2:30-5:30 
 
 Roll-call 5 :45 
 
 Supper 6 :00 
 
 Choir Drill 7:00 
 
 Letter- writing 7 :30 
 Bed hour as other days. 
 
 It will first be noted that forty minutes elapse 
 between the ringing of the rising-bell and break- 
 fast. This would be too long a time were not 
 much more to be done in that period than mere 
 washing and dressing. Formerly a setting-up 
 drill would have been recommended for the boy 
 just out of bed, but unless the morning is very 
 stormy, the time allowed for this exercise is bet- 
 ter spent in the open air. The youngster upon 
 jumping from bed and out of his pyjamas should 
 have a short needle bath or a brisk "ducking" 
 in the tub in water that is cold, or practically so. 
 A bath of this sort is better than a drenching 
 "shower,** and is followed with a quick and 
 
94 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 healthy reaction. The mere putting on of 
 clothes may be a rapid process, and deserves no 
 more time than sufficient to assure neatness of 
 person and the arranging of the bed for its daily 
 airing. The process so far, culminating with a 
 well-washed, completely-dressed youngster, in 
 spite of the perversity of inanimate things such 
 as broken shoe-laces and wilful collars, should 
 not occupy over twenty minutes, and within five 
 minutes after this, the boy should be responding 
 for the tramp of half a mile or more that dis- 
 places the setting-up drill, gives him a taste of 
 nature, fills his lungs with fresh air, and assures 
 a wonderful appetite for breakfast all at the 
 same time. In the frostier weather of the late 
 autumn and winter, when the cubicles are ex- 
 tremely cold as the result of windows opened 
 over night, the school should provide a common 
 dressing-room for each dormitory group. This 
 should be properly heated and used by the boys 
 under surveillance of the dormitory master, or 
 if efficient, by one or more praefects. In fact the 
 common dressing-room is an admirable scheme 
 for every season of the year, as the plan abolishes 
 loitering and all mischief that might result 
 therefrom. Breakfast is seldom a meal that ex- 
 ceeds half an hour, and the thirty minutes addi- 
 tional before school work begins, is free time to 
 
THE DAY'S WORK 95 
 
 await the arrival of the mail, find another bit of 
 fresh air, and more important still, for the daily 
 movement of the bowels. From the carelessness 
 with which boys attend to this diurnal necessity, 
 it would almost seem as if many homes had been 
 negligent in establishing this habit of decency 
 and hygiene. With an open closet provided for 
 an average of every ten boys, there should never 
 be any excuse that ample opportunity for defae- 
 cation is not included in the school programme. 
 The ten minutes allowed for roll-call are, 
 without doubt, sufficient time for the calling 
 together of the school, and for making the neces- 
 sary announcements for the day. The study and 
 recitation periods are thirty-five minutes in 
 length, with five minute breaks for fresh air, 
 chatter, and micturition. The Sixth Hour com- 
 ing at the close of the morning is slightly short- 
 ened, while the Seventh Hour, coming after a 
 decidedly prolonged break, and used for prepara- 
 tion rather than recitation, may be safely ex- 
 tended to forty-five minutes. Shaw says in his 
 book on school hygiene: "The length of the 
 periods given to recitation in the various school 
 years is an important matter. It will be found 
 that much more can be gained by short intensive 
 periods of recitation, than can be gained other- 
 wise. The mistake is constantly being made in 
 
6 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 the arrangement of school programmes of requir- 
 ing pupils to give attention for too long a 
 period. In the grades corresponding to the 
 average forms of the junior boarding-school, 
 Shaw fixes the limit at thirty minutes. It is 
 possible that, upon some occasions the instructor 
 might wish to extend the time a minute or so, 
 and the idea of the thirty-five minutes allowed 
 in the programme here, is to provide thirty 
 minutes of intensive recitation, and the remain- 
 ing time, following a "first bell," for the assign- 
 ment of the next lesson, making up of records, 
 correction of papers, etc., etc. As the hours are 
 so short, the boys should understand that permis- 
 sion to leave the room, except in cases of extreme 
 urgency, will not be granted. In the end, this 
 plan will prove an economy of time. 
 
 At the morning recess, all boys should be 
 required out of doors, and no better way of filling 
 this period can be suggested than by ten minutes 
 of brisk setting-up drill in the open air, to be fol- 
 lowed by a light luncheon of biscuit and milk. 
 
 At the end of the Sixth Hour, ten minutes are 
 allowed for preparation for luncheon, and then 
 an hour is allotted to a meal which should cover 
 forty minutes. The afternoon recreations are 
 
 School Hygiene; Shaw. P. 23L 
 
THE DAY'S WORK 97 
 
 scheduled to fill the earlier portion of the after- 
 noon in the Autumn and Winter Terms, and the 
 latter part during the Spring Term when the 
 days are longer and warmer. The clothing 
 should always be changed before going out for 
 sports, and a definite report made to the master 
 in charge for the day. On stormy afternoons, 
 walking may still be enjoyed, or else extra work 
 in the manual training shop, play in the gymna- 
 sium, or special dispensations in the swimming- 
 pool may take its place. There should be thirty 
 minutes allowed at the close of the afternoon 
 recreations, for "showers/' dressing, and per- 
 haps light refreshments, such as are frequently 
 served in the English schools at this time. 
 
 The Seventh Hour is essentially a preparation 
 and make-up period. The schedule should 
 require all prepared and unprepared lessons to 
 come in the morning hours, and allow frequent 
 free periods then as well. With the individual 
 attention that a school such as this should give, 
 further time for study is unnecessary, and thus 
 the mistake of sending young boys to bed imme- 
 diately after intense mental activity, is avoided 
 
 The evening meal should include the best part 
 of an hour. It should be the formal meal of the 
 day in dress, yet informal enough in its conver- 
 sation and pleasantries to abandon stiffness 
 
98 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 without losing dignity. The question of a first- 
 class table is pertinent here. Children are more 
 susceptible than adults to the effects of food of 
 inferior quality. They need a good varied diet, 
 and yet /'during the whole period of childhood 
 up to the age of puberty, the closest attention 
 should be given to the regulation of the kind and 
 amount of food given them." 1 The human en- 
 gine has not only to go but to grow, and it is a 
 very poor institutional economy and business 
 policy that would restrict the fuel during boy- 
 hood. The idea that a meat diet stimulates sen- 
 suality is not accredited in the best medical 
 circles to-day. Dr. Albert Moil of Berlin has 
 this to say: "The suggestion has been made 
 that from the sexual outlook the diet of children 
 is a matter worthy of the most earnest attention. 
 Nothing should be given to the child which may 
 exert a sexually stimulating effect ; especially we 
 must avoid giving heavy foods late in the even- 
 ing. More detailed direction (in special text- 
 books referred to) are also given as to the use 
 of particular kinds of food, some of which may 
 be consecrated by tradition, and yet seem to have 
 but small reasonable foundation. To this cate- 
 gory belong the prohibition or limitation of flesh- 
 pediatrics; Rotch. P. 245. 
 
THE DAY'S WORK 99 
 
 foods, and the prohibition of asparagus, celery 
 and other articles of diet. There is no proof that 
 such things have a stimulating influence upon 
 the sexual impulse, either in children or in 
 adults. We might more readily incline to believe 
 that certain spices may have such an influence; 
 but even as regards these, no great anxiety may 
 be felt. As regards alcohol, many maintain that 
 it has an exciting influence upon the sexual life, 
 and thus gives rise to all kinds of excesses. This 
 may be true of a good many cases, but the rule is 
 by no means so general as is commonly as- 
 sumed." 1 
 
 A liberal vegetable diet is certainly cheaper in 
 these days of high meat-prices, and the children 
 of the laboring classes brought up mainly on the 
 same, appear well ; but the energy which the food 
 gives must be considered quite as much as the 
 physical growth it induces, and as Spencer says : 
 "Both in mental and physical vivacity the low- 
 fed peasant-boy is greatly inferior to the better 
 fed son of a gentleman. ' ' 2 There is no need how- 
 ever of more than one "heavy" and one "light" 
 meat a day for the boy, and that the former 
 
 1 The Sexual Life of The Child ; Moll. P. 309. 
 
 2 Education; Spencer. P. 248. 
 
100 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 should be served as the evening meal, is not 
 against the recommendation of the eminent Ger- 
 man specialist just quoted, for it will be noted 
 that he merely advises against heavy foods late 
 in the evening, probably with the Continental 
 dinner-hour of eight o'clock in mind, whereat 
 our schedule expects the evening meal to be 
 started not later than six-thirty o'clock. But 
 beyond the question of diet, it is surely most im- 
 portant that the lad should learn to be able to 
 eat whatever food may properly find place on a 
 gentleman's table, and to do so without being 
 finicky or fault-finding, and in such quiet form, 
 as to be inconspicuously well-mannered. 
 
 If a chapel service is to be anything more than 
 a mere formality, the evening hour adds a mys- 
 ticism that appeals to many a lad even though 
 the service is extremely simple a brief passage 
 from the Bible, a prayer, and a hymn in which 
 all may join. After that the evening should be 
 devoted to social diversions, except in dis- 
 ciplinary cases, where a little additional time 
 may be required in the school-room. 
 
 Dr. Rotch, in his wonderful manual on the 
 child "Pediatrics" says that the best rule for 
 rest, is to "allow the child to sleep as long as it 
 naturally can." It is possible to reduce this 
 "naturally can" to reasonably accurate figure*. 
 
THE DAY'S WORK 101 
 
 Dr. Newsholme of the University of London, 
 tabulates the requisite sleep as follows: 
 
 7 year old boys require 11 hours of sleep. 
 
 9 year old boys require 10% hours of sleep. 
 
 12 to 14 year old boys require 9 to 10 hours of 
 sleep. 1 
 
 This tabulation has governed the time allowed 
 for sleep in the school programme presented on 
 page 92. 
 
 The Sunday programme must be somewhat 
 different. Although the rising-bell is set at 7 :45, 
 it is true that this is far too late an hour for the 
 Spring Term, and local conditions must govern. 
 The general programme for the day however has 
 in mind the idea of keeping it as fully occupied 
 as possible. It may be, if the school maintains 
 its own chapel that clergymen can be had more 
 conveniently for the afternoon, in which case it 
 is possible to make the morning the principal 
 period of recreation, and devote the early after- 
 noon to visitors and the close of the day to a 
 vesper service. But whatever the hour of ser- 
 vice the three hours or more on Sunday devoted 
 to out-door activities must be so filled as to prove 
 distinctly a time anticipated with pleasure and 
 remembered with fondest of recollections. The 
 
 1 School Hygiene ; Newsholme. P. 90. 
 
102 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 austerity of the Puritanical Sabbath should be 
 displaced by the modern "athletic Christian.' 1 
 Roll-call at the close of the afternoon is a mere 
 formality. Supper may come at six, a gladsome 
 meal at the close of a happy day. In the even- 
 ing there is the weekly home letter to be done, 
 carefully, but not supervised. 
 
 If we pause to consider the clothing of the boy 
 at school, the memory of our own days at a mili- 
 tary academy may creep into mind, and we can 
 well remember the stiff discomfort of the uni- 
 forms. Military schools have, no doubt, their 
 offices to fill iu the sphere of education, but they 
 are bound to be purely institutional in character 
 a spirit furthest from the welfare of the aver- 
 age lad, for it is only at the small home-school 
 that the young boy will have the full and proper 
 attention necessary to assist him in his "pursuit 
 of perfection." The military school however, 
 offers one good indirect suggestion the uniform. 
 If the repressive, tight-fitting, brass-buttoned 
 suit could give place to a soft, loose, neat and 
 distinctive school costume such as is worn by 
 the boys at ' ' Abbotsholme " for instance which 
 every lad should be required to wear, a good deal 
 of snobbishness arising from differences in dress, 
 which even youngsters recognise, would spon- 
 taneously vanish. And in addition, such an 
 
THE DAY'S WORK 103 
 
 uniform would tend to promote a boyish solid- 
 arity, to say nothing of advertising the school in 
 a modest way. 
 
 As to the quantity of clothing and its texture, 
 there is no doubt but that the older method of 
 "bundling up" is giving place to a more modern 
 idea of lighter apparel; although Spencer, and 
 a few modern physicians as well, deprecate too 
 light clothing for children on the ground that a 
 boy's extra energy which should be directed to 
 growing, should not be spent in keeping him 
 warm. The scientist Sxes this rule: "Put on 
 clothing in kind and quantity sufficient in the 
 individual case to protect the body effectively 
 from an abiding sensation of cold, however 
 slight. ' ' 1 This is a good standard to follow, 
 providing it is given a most contemporary in- 
 terpretation. The particular problem commands 
 the attention of the director of the school, who 
 should take into consideration the climate of the 
 locality, the occupations of the boys, and the 
 temperature at which it is proposed to keep the 
 school. The lad who has had a cold bath and a 
 good romp in the morning, even when lightly 
 dressed, will have no reason to complain of the 
 cold, and furthermore, will be less liable to 
 
 Education; Spencer. P. 263. 
 
104 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 grippe and "colds" than the lad living under a 
 less Spartan regimen. 
 
 Before dismissing the subject of clothing, the 
 question of night-clothing needs some attention. 
 Fortunately the day of the old-fashioned night- 
 shirt has passed, and they should be forever bar- 
 red from a dormitory. Pyjamas are sane and 
 comfortable. They afford protection to restless 
 sleepers who are apt to kick off the bed-coverings, 
 and more than that, prove an impediment to the 
 practice of self-abuse. The pyjamas should not 
 be of too heavy material, nor should the bedding 
 be too abundant. Mistakes of this sort contri- 
 bute to restlessness, dreams, and other unneces- 
 sary conditions. If there is a mistake made, let 
 it be on the side of light bed-clothes. Spencer's 
 rule may be applied in this direction Let there 
 be sufficient bed-clothes in use, so that the boy is 
 warm as he lies. Heavier coverings may be at 
 hand and if the boy really feels the need of them, 
 he will have the energy to rouse himself and pull 
 them over him. Minor considerations of this 
 nature contribute to the boy's welfare, and the 
 school that claims to perform the duties of the 
 home, must not fail to attend to even the smallest 
 points that relate to a lad's comfort. 
 
 The traditional "Saturday night bath" must 
 give place to the convenience of dormitory ad- 
 
THE DAY'S WORK 105 
 
 ministration. "With a daily " ducking " in the 
 morning, a "hot shower" after exercising in the 
 afternoon, and the average washing-up for meals, 
 it is a question whether more than one "hot tub" 
 is needed during a week. This is governed by 
 circumstances; but the weekly scrubbing must 
 be a thorough one, and should be supervised. The 
 lad of eight or ten may need assistance to remove 
 the dirt from sacred precincts, such as "behind 
 the ears" for example, or perhaps persuasion to 
 believe that it is more than "tan." The dor- 
 mitory master must stand ready to perform such 
 personal service, remembering the failures of his 
 own childhood. Some physicians claim that baths 
 should never be taken within two hours of a meal, 
 but this seems an exceptionally long interval. 
 
 On the subject of swimming-pools there is 
 much to be said. Many of the leading American 
 schools do not favor them on hygienic grounds. 
 At some schools they have proven the focus for 
 salacious conversation and sexual indecency. 
 Properly supervised however, both in respect to 
 frequent refillings and judicious use, it seems as 
 if the swimming-pool were a valuable adjunct to 
 any school. Certainly the exercise brings nearly 
 all the muscles into play and actually being in 
 the water means a very close touch with nature. 
 Added to this is the great value of being a master 
 
106 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 of the art of swimming; and the objections on 
 moral grounds can certainly be eliminated by 
 a director in charge, who understands his boys. 
 
 Another important question is the weekly holi- 
 day. There is the traditional whole holiday, 
 usually Saturday, though in some schools Mon- 
 day or even Thursday. A free day Saturday 
 encourages the privilege of week-end absences. 
 However agreeable this may prove to the boy 
 and his family, or whatever relief it may bring 
 to the school, it has the one great disadvantage 
 that the boy is so frequently exposed to con- 
 tagious diseases. This is equally true if Mon- 
 day were the holiday, although this plan has one 
 point of commendation lessons are apt to be the 
 better on Tuesday through preparation on Mon- 
 day night. But interruptions in the school 
 routine are always the source of trouble where 
 the young boy is concerned, and a whole day 
 free, either before or after Sunday is apt to 
 prove the truth of the old adage, that " Satan 
 finds some mischief still for idle hands to do. " 
 
 Another plan, far better in the boarding- 
 school, and in use in practically all the schools 
 of England, as well as in many of the leading 
 boarding-schools of America, is the Wednesday 
 and Saturday " Half -Holiday." By that plan 
 the morning is shortened by a recitation hour on 
 
THE DAY'S WORK 107 
 
 these two days, and the afternoon preparation 
 period omitted entirely, thus giving an absolutely 
 free afternoon. This plan is sure to coincide well 
 with the athletic interests of a school, facilitates 
 the operation of the "credit holiday" scheme, 
 which will find discussion later (see page 167), 
 and at the same time infringes very little upon 
 the regularity of school routine. 
 
 The recognition of incidental state holidays, 
 with the exception of Thanksgiving day, is un- 
 necessary. Certain American boarding-schools 
 that do not grant their pupils leave of absence on 
 the national feast day, have substituted the ad- 
 mirable scheme of inviting their patrons to dine 
 at the school then; and although the expense of 
 this plan may be a serious consideration, it has 
 worked out well in other ways wherever tried. 
 
 The regular vacations conclude this chapter. 
 The school session in the trying climate of the 
 Middle Atlantic States, can hardly last longer 
 than from October to June. This gives the boy 
 a summer of unusual length, yet the eight months 
 of school afford the time for better general 
 development than the public school can produce 
 in ten. This is because the boarding-school has 
 the constant supervision of the lad, which, 
 rightly directed, is bound to effect the maximum 
 results in the minimum time. 
 
108 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 During the school-year of eight months, two 
 short vacations are in order ; fourteen to eighteen 
 days at Christmas time, and ten days in the 
 Spring. This proves an adequately worked-out 
 term scheme for any junior boarding-school in 
 America, and it is one which permits of summer 
 use of the school premises, or of a camping plan 
 supplementary to the regular school work. 
 
VIII 
 THE CURRICULUM. 
 
 AS has been indicated before, the cur- 
 riculum should fit the boy, so that his 
 four sides his physical, mental, 
 moral and social natures may find 
 constant, normal and proper development and 
 training. The subjects to be handled in the 
 junior boarding-school, do not have to be fixed 
 with that unfortunate utilitarian purpose in 
 mind, that underlies the formulation of the 
 public school curriculum. The intellectual capa- 
 city that the boy shall need to attain personal 
 excellence, and the psychological laws suggested 
 in Chapter IV are the principal factors which 
 determine the lessons he shall study, and the age 
 at which he shall begin them. McMurry is right 
 in claiming that the obsolete and useless material 
 should be eliminated from the curriculum, that 
 it should be simplified by correlation as far as 
 possible, and that the school course as a whole 
 should be more thoroughly organised ; * yet it is 
 
 1 Course of Study in the Eight Grades ; 
 McMurry. Pp. 21-23. 
 
 109 
 
110 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 probable that a closer analysis of his views 
 would disclose the fact that he is thoroughly in 
 sympathy with the present trend of the public 
 school's curriculum, which, while providing a 
 boy with much that he may find useful, is con- 
 stantly discarding all that is inspirational in 
 literary lines. It is important that the boarding- 
 school, should take a broader outlook on intel- 
 lectual development, and provide the boy with 
 subjects of wider cultural and cultivating con- 
 tent at a time when he is mentally equipped to 
 grasp them most readily. For this reason the 
 school may assume a somewhat ungraded appear- 
 ance, and yet a subject may be quite properly 
 assigned to forms, and boys as properly assigned 
 to classes which offer the work nearest to their 
 immediate capacities. It is strange that this plan 
 should be worked out so well in the majority of 
 English schools when their natural inclination 
 towards hard and fast regulations is borne in 
 mind. But they do it by having all the mathe- 
 matics classes recite one hour, the Latin classes 
 another hour, etc., etc., to various form-masters, 
 and the boy is fitted in according to his progress. 
 In American private schools the departmental 
 system is so in vogue, that taking mathematics 
 in one form, Latin in another, and perhaps 
 English in a still different one, would involve a 
 
THE CURRICULUM 111 
 
 hopeless entanglement of the average schedule. 
 Yet there is much to be said in favor of depart- 
 mental instruction, especially as it allows the 
 employment of specialists in each particular 
 subject, and gives the boy a chance for contact 
 with various masters. The private school is cen- 
 surable if it fails to produce far better results 
 in the class-room than the public school, for not 
 only are the groups of pupils much smaller, but 
 the masters usually have a range of college edu- 
 cation, travel and social advantages behind them, 
 in which the average normal school graduate is 
 quite deficient. 
 
 The following curriculum is suggested for use 
 in a junior boarding-school which would accept 
 a boy aged nine for admission to the first form. 
 The work in that form presupposes but the 
 simplest preparation a little working knowl- 
 edge of the four fundamental processes of arith- 
 metic, the ability to write a fairly legible hand 
 and to read intelligently average handwriting 
 and simple printed matter. The sixth year of 
 this curriculum is practically equivalent to the 
 first year of work in the public high school, and is 
 only provided in case the boy is not sexually 
 mature enough to warrant his change to a 
 secondary boarding-school, that is, one offering 
 a four-year college-preparatory course, at the 
 end of his Fifth Form work. 
 
112 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 When this thesis was first prepared to satisfy 
 the completion of certain graduate courses in 
 education, the writer was compelled to evaluate 
 each subject in the curriculum; but cut loose 
 from the requirements of academic theories, and 
 in the light of subsequent very practical ex- 
 perience and success, he has found that a definite 
 formulation of educational values is far less im- 
 portant than the consideration of the effective 
 teaching of such subjects as common opinion, 
 and the experience of years in the long-estab- 
 lished schools, have designated as necessary in 
 the curriculum. It is, then, with all due respect, 
 that the reader's attention is directed to the 
 hundred and one books already published on the 
 subject of educational values, while this treatise 
 from now on will avoid the expression of even 
 such simple theories as have been indulged in, 
 and devote its pages to the administrative and 
 practical side of the junior boarding-school 
 
 MATHEMATICS 
 
 Form I. Elementary Arithmetic. 
 
 Form II. Common fractions, decimals and 
 compound numbers. 
 
 Form III. Percentage, and Arithmetic com- 
 pleted. 
 
THE CURRICULUM 111 
 
 Form IV. General review in more advanced 
 text-book. 
 
 Form V and VI. Concrete Geometry and 
 Algebra to quadratics. 
 
 Obsolete topics are to be omitted in Arithmetic, 
 and problems more readily solved by algebraic 
 processes, are to be treated as such. Particular 
 care and attention should be given to drill in 
 Mental Arithmetic, and to problems in Business 
 Arithmetic, solved in a practical, business way. 
 The "spiral method" is apt to sacrifice a 
 thorough mastery of any one subject. Thorough 
 drill in the fundamental processes, especially the 
 multiplication tables, is essential. Clear and ac- 
 curate reasoning should not be expected too 
 soon. It is a power which develops with puberty 
 and Algebra and Geometry are subjects in which 
 it can find readier expression than in Arithmetic 
 pure and simple. Concrete problems are always 
 valuable. Facility and accuracy in the pro- 
 cesses depend more upon constant drill with 
 smaller numbers, than irregular oral work in 
 larger figures. 
 
 ENGLISH 
 
 Spelling, Penmanship and Reading as such, 
 should find a place in all the forms and should 
 not be sacrificed to the fetish of correlation, 
 
114 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 Letter-writing in the younger forms should ex- 
 pand to the weekly and daily theme. Theme 
 work should always be considered in respect to 
 form, style and organisation of content-matter, 
 never as to length. The schedule in fact bars 
 themes over two hundred words. But written 
 expression is no more important than oral 
 expression, vocabulary at command, pronuncia- 
 tion, and articulation. Good diction is very 
 much a matter of imitation, and the staff should 
 be chosen with that idea in view. The technical 
 work of English has its place in Grammar and 
 Rhetoric. It is probable that, with Latin Gram- 
 mar, English Grammar needs less consideration, 
 but Rhetoric, or as the modern text-books are 
 styled "Composition" should be well studied 
 as such. School dramatics offer splendid op- 
 portunities for correlated work in English, and 
 also a school publication. The following sug- 
 gestions are made towards the boy's introduc- 
 tion to literature: 
 
 Form I. 
 
 "In the Days of the Giants." 
 
 "Stories of Great Men." 
 
 "Big People and Little People of Other 
 
 Lands." 
 "Robinson Crusoe." 
 
THE CURRICULUM 116 
 
 Form II. 
 
 "Song of Hiawatha." 
 "Alice in Wonderland. " 
 "American Life and Adventure." 
 "Old Greek Stories." 
 
 Form III. 
 
 "Andersen's Fairy Tales." 
 "Tanglewood Tales." 
 "Stories of Ulysses." 
 "Water Babies." 
 
 Form IV. 
 
 Heroic Ballads. 
 
 "Rip an Winkle" and "Legend of Sleepy 
 
 Hollow." 
 
 "Stories of English History "Warren. 
 Selections from Burroughs, Longfellow, 
 
 Hawthorne, Dickens, et al. 
 
 Form V. 
 
 "Alhambra" and "Sketch Book." 
 "Last of The Mohegans." 
 "Tom Brown at Rugby." 
 "Treasure Island." 
 "Tales from Shakespeare." 
 "Courtship of Miles Standish." 
 "Vision of Sir Launfal" 
 
116 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 Form VI. 
 
 Masterpieces of American Literature. 
 
 "Evangeline." 
 
 11 House of Seven Gables." 
 
 "Christmas Carol " 
 
 Selected Plays from Shakespeare. 
 
 Public speaking for all forms is a good old 
 stand-by, and should be regularly covered, with 
 encouragement towards extemporaneous remarks 
 and debate in the fifth and sixth forms. 
 
 HISTORY AND POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY 
 
 There is a natural alliance between these two 
 subjects that makes correlation practical. A 
 boy appreciates a vigorous, concrete view of 
 History, rather than its philosophical side, and 
 usually is keen about Geography, especially if 
 the master has a fund of experience to draw 
 upon, and introduces a certain amount of clearly 
 defined work for preparation in the form of 
 map-drawing. 
 
 History and Geography are inspirational sub- 
 jects, and may be made to reach the boy's in- 
 terest through his love of adventure and hero- 
 worship. It is probable that History is more 
 rationally developed through following it in ita 
 course as it was made, and for those who feel 
 
THE CURRICULUM UT 
 
 that American History should be more conspicu- 
 ously featured, it is suggested that it be intro- 
 duced as work in Reading. 
 
 Form I. Introduction to Greek History through 
 
 Mythology. 
 Physical Geography. (See Nature Study.) 
 
 Form II. Simple Greek History. 
 Physical Geography, as above. 
 
 Form III. Simple Roman History. 
 
 Political Geography Eastern Hemisphere. 
 
 Form IV. English History. 
 
 Political Geography Western Hemisphere. 
 
 Form V. American History. 
 Commercial Geography. 
 
 Form VI. Civil Government. 
 
 NATURE STUDY AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 
 
 The aim of Nature Study may be made the 
 understanding on a boy's part of the develop- 
 ment, growth and care of his own body. Physical 
 Geography may be associated with this, inas- 
 
Ill YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 much as the subject affords an opportunity for 
 the lad to learn the conditions of life existing in 
 the world beyond his own immediate vicinity. 
 The manner in which these subjects are 
 presented, it is hoped, will encourage the boy to 
 learn from nature the wonders of life, and to find 
 the expression of those wonders in the human 
 form. A boy at puberty should be able to ac- 
 count for his own existence, and to realise the 
 responsibility that falls on the fathers of the 
 next generation. Before leaving the junior 
 boarding-school the ideals of pure and decent 
 manhood should be fixed in his mind, and there 
 is no more rational way of attaining that end 
 than through a study of nature, supplemented 
 by the intimate friendship of an older man 
 either the headmaster or one of his assistants, in 
 close touch with the boy. 
 
 Form I. Study of common birds and animals. 
 
 Form II. Study of flowers, trees, vegetables and 
 seeds, with special attention to 
 germination and cross-fertilisa- 
 tion. 
 
 Form III. Study of wild plants, insects and 
 animals. Observations of the 
 weather. Simple Physics. 
 
THE CURRICULUM 119 
 
 Form IV. Protective devices of animals and 
 plants. Vegetable reproduction. 
 Simple Chemistry. 
 
 Form V. Animal reproduction. Mineralogy. 
 Physical Geography. 
 
 Form VI. Physiology and Hygiene. Physical 
 Geography. 
 
 MODERN LANGUAGES 
 
 The introduction of Modern Languages into 
 the junior school curriculum, gives the boy the 
 opportunity to acquire conversational power and 
 proper accent, while, psychologically, it is the 
 easiest for him to do so. Grammar, composition 
 and translation in any degree, which require 
 preparation should not come in the earlier forms. 
 There is no branch of learning more cultural 
 than the acquiring of a modern tongue, and its 
 value is not only intellectual, but practical. The 
 curriculum of the school should offer six years 
 of either French or German, and three of Latin ; 
 yet the programme might be flexible enough to 
 allow three years in the second modern language 
 instead of Latin. It is ill-advised however, to 
 let the boy make such a decision as this. A 
 
120 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 privilege extended to one should mean a privilege 
 extended to all, and the headmaster should be 
 far-sighted enough to limit irregularities. The 
 election of studies may prove a possibility in 
 the upper school, but seldom in the lower. 
 
 Form I. Conversation (in language chosen). 
 Form II. Conversation and simple Reading. 
 
 Form III. The elements of Grammar and Com- 
 position. 
 
 Form IV. Grammar, Composition, Memorising. 
 
 Form V. Composition and Grammar. Reading : 
 In French "Contes et Legendes." 
 
 "Fables/ 1 etc., LeFontaine. 
 In German "Immensee"- Storm. 
 
 "Hocher als die Kirche," etc. 
 
 Form VI. French Reading: 
 
 "La Tache de Petit Pierre." 
 "La Tulipe Noire/' etc. 
 German Reading: 
 Schiller's "Wilhelm TelL" 
 Lessing's "Minna von Barnhelm/' etc. 
 
THE CURRICULUM 121 
 
 LATIN 
 
 While there is a loudly-voiced protest against 
 the study of the Classic Tongues at present, the 
 argument still holds true that in Latin and 
 Greek are to be found the true sources of 
 European Literature, and to appreciate litera- 
 ture beyond its mere content, some knowledge of 
 the languages in which it was founded must be 
 the student's property. This, of course, is an 
 unnecessary accomplishment for the artisan, but 
 for the gentleman it is an essential element of 
 his education. America has become so utilitarian 
 in its temper, and so afraid that an acknowledge- 
 ment of good points in English education may 
 thrust us again under the yoke of George III, 
 that Latin bids fair to be less and less studied as 
 the years go by. Although foreign to the public 
 school curriculum, there is both the time and 
 reason for it in the private school. The study of 
 its grammar eliminates much drudgery from 
 English. Historically treated, it vitalises two 
 thousand years. Should the question arise; "If 
 Latin is so important, why not include Greek as 
 well?" the reply would be; "Greek might well 
 be studied in our fifth and sixth forms were the 
 demand for it greater and the difficulties of the 
 tongue less. But considering its points in com- 
 
122 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 mon with Latin, gained by the study of Latin, 
 it is better left to the days of the secondary 
 school, when Latin shall have been fairly well 
 mastered." Returning then to the three years 
 of Latin, the work may be distributed as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 Form IV. Introductory work to the Subjunc- 
 tive Mood. Simple readings. 
 
 Form V. Completion of the essentials of Gram- 
 mar and Syntax. Readings. In- 
 troductory work in Composition. 
 
 Form VI. Simplified " Caesar." Composition. 
 
 MANUAL TRAINING 
 
 President Eliot has well said; "The human 
 mind pervades the body. It is not in the head, 
 but it is all over the body; and when you train 
 the hand, or the eye, or the ear, you train the 
 mind." 1 As Tyler adds, "Hand and mind are 
 Siamese twins. The hand was intended to be 
 used as the servant of the planning mind. Their 
 centres in the brain stand in closest relation with 
 the highest areas of thought. Thus anatomy 
 
 1 Growth and Education; Tyler. P. 228. 
 
THE CURRICULUM IIS 
 
 teaches that manual exercise can not fail to de- 
 velop mental power." 1 Manual Training is un- 
 limited in its application. It affords laboratory 
 practice in every subject. It enables the boy to 
 realise his thoughts in action. It is the summit 
 of practical education. It balances with the 
 humanities, the sciences and the Classics, to give 
 an all-sided growth. It fixes in the boy's mind 
 the habit of visualising and materialising his 
 conceptions, an instinct that will remain through 
 life. Manual Training as such for younger boys 
 should include rafia, sloyd, modelling, and such 
 other occupations as awaken response in the 
 particular group of pupils dealt with. The two 
 great points about teaching it are as follows: 
 First, careful work should be insisted upon ; and 
 second, the work must be manual in every pos- 
 sible respect, and methods of teaching it which 
 might be considered as verging on the purely 
 intellectual (for example note books or writ- 
 ten analyses), should hardly be introduced. 
 
 There are other minor subjects finding place 
 very properly in the curriculum, such as Vocal 
 Music, Drawing, Calisthenics ,etc., etc. 
 
 An appreciation of music and an ability to 
 sing, to say nothing of a talent for instrumental 
 
 1 Growth and Education. Tyler. P. 229. 
 
124 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 music being developed, are as important in 
 general cultivation as History or the art of 
 Letter-writing. Normal boys usually express 
 some talent for music, and an opportunity for 
 singing at least should find place in the curri- 
 culum. A school song arouses a splendid amount 
 of loyalty and good cheer, and is a resource that 
 no school can afford to neglect. 
 
 Drawing, for its part, is a form of manual 
 training, yet far more aesthetic. It is one of 
 the earliest forms of self-expression, and often 
 the means whereby a boy may discover himself. 
 The work must be along lines that will embrace 
 the elements both of the industrial and the fine 
 arts, and develop by spontaneous response, the 
 inherent power in the individual. 
 
 The chapter on Physical Training discusses 
 the subject of calisthenics at length, and the 
 recommendation is later made that the morning 
 recess be occupied with a "setting-up drill," if 
 no other regular time for calisthenics find place 
 on the programme. 
 
 The time allotment is an important phase of 
 the schedule. The programme presented on the 
 following page is planned to bring the best 
 results; but in fixing definitely the hours for 
 subjects, the heavier subjects Mathemathics, 
 Latin and English should have the first recita- 
 
THE CURRICULUM 125 
 
 tion periods of the day when the mind is alert, 
 and the more ready to respond. The value of 
 subjects in "points," should correspond closely 
 to the number of recitations a week, four-point 
 subjects being allowed four hours, two-point 
 subjects either two or three hours, and one-point 
 subjects, one hour or less. 
 
 Although a strict adherence to the prescribed 
 course has been urged, conditions will always 
 arise demanding some flexibility of programme; 
 but while the curriculum may permit some in- 
 dividual adjustment, the routine of the school 
 should be rigidly adhered to. Plainess but ful- 
 ness of life is what the school should provide the 
 boy. "Luxury and all that goes to weaken life 
 work is absolutely out of place in school, for, as 
 we shall come to note more plainly, work, in its 
 broadest sense, WORK, and the JOY of work, 
 is the business of the school. ' ' 
 
 SCHEDULE OP WEEKLY TIME ALLOWANCES ( periods ) 
 
 Prepared Work 
 
 Form I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 Mathemathics 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 English 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 Latin 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 1 Personality in Education ; Conover. P. 69. 
 
126 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 History 222222 
 
 Political Geography 222222 
 Nat. Study & Phys. Geog. 333222 
 Modern Languages 222333 
 
 19 19 19 21 21 21 
 Unprepared Work. 
 
 Drawing 222222 
 
 Manual Training 333222 
 
 Study Periods 14 14 14 13 13 13 
 
 38 38 38 38 38 38 
 
 This schedule is based on thirty-eight periods 
 per week, seven on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 
 and Friday, and five on Wednesday and Satur- 
 day. Perhaps two might be added for Sunday 
 making one for Bible Class and one for letter- 
 writing, according to the plan on page 93. At 
 any rate, the Wednesday and Saturday Half- 
 holiday arrangement is assumed as a basis for 
 the above. 
 
 It will be noted that this schedule allows nearly 
 as many periods of preparation as there are 
 prepared recitations. The ratio is certainly suffi- 
 cient when it is remembered that so much of the 
 work with pre-adlescents needs to be done in 
 class, and that any habits of loafing encouraged 
 
THE CURRICULUM 127 
 
 by too much time in the school-room, are per- 
 nicious, and difficult to efface in later years. 
 
 There are other things which develop per- 
 sonal excellence that might have official place in 
 the schedule, but being matters more of physical, 
 moral, or social content, they fall more naturally 
 within the "free time" of the boy. Swimming, 
 dancing, riding, etc., should certainly be mas- 
 tered by every boy before he leaves the junior 
 boarding-school, but the introduction of these 
 activities into the official curriculum must 
 depend upon local conditions, and the economical 
 division of time. The curriculum in its entirety 
 should propose for its end, sound, upright, ac- 
 complished and lovable boys, and every subject 
 or activity needs careful weighing before being 
 introduced. The point of view of the usefulness 
 of subjects and activities, varies directly as the 
 educator may hold that the classes require vitally 
 different up-bringing from the masses. The ad- 
 vice given by Mr. Merriam in his paper on 
 "Fundamentals in the Elementary School Cur- 
 riculum, " read before the National Education 
 Association at Chicago, in February, 1909, indi- 
 vidually interpreted, may be of value to the head- 
 master. "We are learning that the most 
 adequate adjustment to-day prepares for the 
 adequate adjustment to-morrow. The boy cares 
 
128 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 little to prepare for the future ; his great desire 
 is to act now. This child-view is in strictest ac- 
 cord with the recent thought designated by the 
 term * pragmatism. ' To use the words of Pro- 
 fessor Woodbridge : ' It would aim to introduce 
 subjects into the general course of study, at the 
 times when these subjects are needed for the 
 extension of knowledge already acquired ... 
 It would make the point of departure in the 
 education of the individual students the student 
 himself and his environment, and thus work 
 upward. 11 ' 1 
 
 Educational Review; April, 1909. VoL 37. 
 No. 4. P. 393. 
 
IX 
 THE PERSONNEL OF THE STAFF 
 
 IT must be evident to the reader that the 
 personnel of the staff of the junior board- 
 ing-school is of no small importance in the 
 successful administration of the institution. 
 In order to make the school's curriculum and 
 routine effective, a master must not only prove 
 the boy's instructor, but his friend, his play- 
 fellow, his confidant, his exemplar, and his 
 parent as well. It is almost impossible for a 
 prospective patron to meet, and to form an 
 opinion of all the men with whom his son may 
 be associated in the school, but he should assure 
 himself of the intuition and integrity of the 
 headmaster, and safely leave it to him to secure 
 the best men obtainable to look after his boy. 
 It is no easy matter to find a man of sterling 
 character, one really fond of working with young 
 boys, strongly masculine, and yet gifted with 
 patience and other feminine qualities which make 
 for proficiency in the care and management of 
 pre-adolescent boys. 
 
 129 
 
130 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 Some junior schools have accepted a few 
 women as teachers. Dr. Henderson rather ap- 
 proves of them, but thinks "the plan is exceed- 
 ingly bad, and especially for sturdy, growing, 
 virile boys, if the women be inexperienced young 
 girls, just from college or normal school, and 
 quite unwilling and unable to deal with the 
 vital, bodily side of life . . . They who fail 
 in this work are much less to blame than the 
 older person who imposes so strange a task, and 
 that they do fail, I think every headmaster who 
 has received boys from their hands would be 
 obliged to bear witness . . . And yet it is 
 desirable that 003-8 should come at all stages of 
 their lives under the influence of good women, 
 and have the benefit of their wisdom and point 
 of view . . The way out (of this dilemma) 
 is very simple ; it is to have both men and women 
 . . . an elder woman to deal with the younger 
 children, tenderly but effectively, and with that 
 matronly modesty which is not appalled by a 
 naked child and his healthy appetites; a man, 
 strong and gentle, to give the sloyd, and some 
 other sides of the work. ' ' l 
 
 1 Education and the Larger Life ; Henderson, 
 P. 364. 
 
THE PERSONNEL OF THE STAFF 131 
 
 An ideal teaching force of this sort is almost 
 an impracticability in the small boarding-school, 
 where the economic value of the teacher must be 
 considered. The right woman would certainly 
 add "new wisdom and point of view," but the 
 right man can achieve almost the same results in 
 that direction, and very much more in others, if 
 at least assured of the co-operation of one woman 
 in the capacity of house-mother. A woman can 
 not be a boy's play-mate, disciplinarian, athletic 
 leader nor real instructor in the school arts. But 
 she has the right to approach his spiritual nature, 
 to comfort in moments of discouragement, and to 
 applaud at times of success. The boy however, 
 is a man in the making, and should be made a 
 man by men. 
 
 The qualifications of the "right man" are diffi- 
 cult to define. His selection is perhaps the head- 
 master 's hardest problem, for upon his assistants 
 depends the welfare of the boys and the success 
 of the school. The school needs an instructor 
 not only cultured, but cultivated, with all that 
 that term implies. Men such as these are hard to 
 find among the recruits from whose ranks the 
 teacher is usually drawn. College degrees assure 
 a certain modicum of culture and look well in 
 the school catalogue, but they guarantee no real 
 polish, no "savoire vivre" beyond the expe- 
 
132 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 riences of the university. The proof that this 
 ' ' right man ' ' for the lower school is hard to find, 
 is merely in the observation that the demand far 
 exceeds the supply. The young man just out of 
 college who essays teaching, will probably be 
 more successful in upper school work than in 
 lower, for his own recent experience as a second- 
 ary school pupil, and his immediate enthusiasm 
 for his "alma mater/' to say nothing of the 
 possible drudgery in teaching elementary sub- 
 jects, the uncertainty of the recognition of 
 academic seniority, and the limited financial 
 prospects in this particular line, all are objec- 
 tions to taking up work in the junior school. A 
 man somewhat more mature, reverts with greater 
 facility to articulation with the interests of boy- 
 hood. Though he has left the " Court of Boy- 
 ville" years ago, he may yet win a quasi re- 
 entrance as privy-councillor. More than this he 
 can not hope for, but this alone will enable him 
 to achieve his purpose. 
 
 Dr. Thring, the famous English headmaster, 
 said: "There is no more tendency in boys to 
 betray their friends than there is in men; nay, 
 not as much. But, then, who are their friends t 
 The whole plan and practice of the school must 
 convince them that they and their governors 
 truly form one body, and that the government 
 
THE PERSONNEL OF THE STAFF US 
 
 is their friend, and again on another page of 
 "Education and School/ 1 "If truth and honor 
 are required in a school, all things must be 
 framed in such a way as to work out the objects 
 professed with thorough truth; and any want 
 of truth, anything that is false will inevitably 
 find its way into the life of the boys and taint it 
 And no wonder; nothing is detected so soon as 
 inconsistency, and eyes looking upward see 
 sharply. Those who stand low on the ladder 
 observe the dirt under the boots of those above 
 them, however spotless their coats may be, and 
 are apt to care little for preachments dropped 
 down from aloft, telling them to keep clean and 
 be good. Those who look up, ought to see no 
 dirt. Truth is required to produce truth, and 
 when the machinery is right, and all things are 
 working truly, truth may be fairly expected to 
 return, and boys may be trusted, and can be 
 trusted, safely." 1 
 
 Home feels that one of the prime requisites 
 of a successful teacher is interest. "Interest," 
 he says, "begets interest. There is nothing so 
 contagious as a feeling. Given a teacher him- 
 self brimming with interest in the subject taught 
 
 1 Education and School; Thring. Pp. 29, 30. 
 
134 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING SCHOOL 
 
 for its own sake and for the pupil's sake, and 
 that is a rare and frigid class indeed that will 
 not thaw out under his genial influence. ' ' ! 
 
 Speaking on ' ' Education as a Career ' ' former 
 President Eliot of Harvard said that "a teacher 
 may look for four returns: First, the real de- 
 light he finds in imparting knowledge; Second, 
 the pleasure he experiences in the response of 
 his pupil ; Third, the public consideration which 
 may attend to a remarkable degree the work of 
 a successful teacher ; and Fourth, the making of 
 disciples. ' ' ' And yet a man must live, and not 
 only live, but provide against old age. There 
 must be some financial quid pro quo, except in 
 the rare instances of wealthy and philanthropi- 
 cally inclined men. There is a cold matter-of- 
 fact side to the shield beyond the "satisfaction to 
 be found in the work/' and it must be faced. 
 Without the hope of founding in some dim, dis- 
 tant future, an establishment of his own, what 
 has the under-master to look forward tot Is he 
 teaching for a mere pittance because incapable 
 of earning a living otherwise? If so, he is equally 
 out of place as teacher. It may seem a sweeping 
 
 1 Philosophy of Education ; Home. P. 195. 
 Sanders Theatre, Cambridge, Mass., Tues., 
 Apr. 13, 1909. 
 
THE PERSONNEL OF THE STAFF 135 
 
 statement to make, but a man who is unable to 
 earn his living in some other way as well, is in- 
 competent to train a boy for participation in the 
 affairs of the world. 
 
 The school should pay the master a salary suffi- 
 cient to provide him with all the necessities of 
 life and a few of its luxuries, and at the same 
 time to permit his retiring on a modest com- 
 petency from his savings, when his days of effi- 
 ciency are over, for a time must come when 
 teaching is no longer good for the teacher, and 
 his time of efficiency is more limited with 
 younger boys than with older. Our optimist, 
 Dr. Henderson, paints a rosy future for him how- 
 ever, "He has given his best to the work, and 
 he has gotten the best out of the work. To be 
 at once and always a teacher is a very poor plan 
 of life. It is much better to regard the teaching 
 as a contribution and a discipline, and then to 
 pass on. When one has made the contribution, 
 and reaped the discipline, one is bound by the 
 requirements of the experimental life, to seek a 
 larger personal reaction and a theatre for greater 
 social service. In doing this a man does not turn 
 his back upon old interests and pursuits. He 
 simply broadens and extends them. As an in- 
 vestigator, as a writer, as an artist, he carrier 
 his branch one or many steps further and touches 
 
136 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 a larger audience. As a public-minded house- 
 holder, as a statesman, he may bring his ripened 
 powers to the service of a still larger destiny. 
 . * . . I am emphasising this strongly be- 
 cause on all sides one sees feeble dispirited teach- 
 ing, and worn-out, discouraged teachers. One 
 can not communicate what one has not got, and 
 it is abundant, beautiful, glorious life that we 
 want." 1 
 
 Of course "the profession of teaching does not 
 propose as its object the making of money" 
 (Eliot), and yet a master in a boarding-school, 
 deprived at least for many years of the sacred 
 privilege of home-making, can hardly be justified 
 in following a vocation that yields only a phil- 
 anthropic contribution to the social weal, if he 
 has no other career in view, and is not himself 
 in funds for the term of his natural life. Perhaps 
 these are the reasons why so many men duly 
 qualified to serve, use the profession as a tem- 
 porary stepping-stone between college and per- 
 manent life-work, and do not labor with the same 
 depth of interest, though not lacking in power, 
 that we might expect from a master making 
 work with boys his life-career, at least as far 
 
 1 Education and the Larger Life ; Henderson. 
 P. 367. 
 
THE PERSONNEL OF THE STAFF 137 
 
 ahead as he can see it. Perhaps some co-opera- 
 tive business policy on a school's part might 
 assist the solution of the financial problem, still 
 this suggestion is vague of formulation. 
 
 There is really as little encouragement to enter 
 the vocation of a master in a lower school, as 
 there is to hazard funds in the establishment of 
 such schools. The headmaster of an English 
 preparatory school, the Rev. C. Black, of Colwall, 
 Malvern, in a report upon the "Economics of 
 the Preparatory School" made to the Royal 
 Education Committee in 1906 says: "The busi- 
 ness is the most capricious of all trades; though 
 as regards brain and character, the school- 
 master 's work may be of the noblest. ' ' 1 The 
 success of the preparatory school, Mr. Black feels 
 depends very much on the personality of the 
 headmaster. Many successful schoolmasters 
 have calculated that 4% is the outside interest 
 they are reaping on the capital that has been 
 sunk ; and the man would be sanguine who would 
 ever hope to realise on the capital at par. 
 
 "The Report of the Committee of Fifteen" 
 has a good deal to say about the professionally 
 trained teacher. In so far as school methods arc 
 concerned, its recommendations are not of par- 
 
 1 Royal Education Report, 1906. 
 
138 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 ticular interest or application in the private 
 school's curriculum, but the junior school will 
 do well to heed its suggestion regarding the em- 
 ployment of teachers who have some knowledge 
 of psychology as a "lamp unto their feet," in 
 their work with boys. The Committee recom- 
 mends "that early in their course of study 
 teachers in training assume as true the well- 
 known facts of psychology and the essential prin- 
 ciples of education, and make their later study 
 and practice in the light of these principles. 
 These principles thus become the norm of educa- 
 tional thought, and their truth is continually 
 demonstrated by subsequent experience. From 
 this time theory and practice should proceed 
 together in mutual aid and support." 1 Even 
 this remarkable Committee has less to say about 
 method than might be supposed. After all it 
 is the eclectic in education who is the best 
 teacher. The inductive method may do here, 
 or the deductive there, but it is the productive 
 method that counts in teaching the school arts. 
 The moral standing of the master is of vital 
 importance to the welfare of the school. The 
 intuition of the headmaster must prove the judge 
 of a candidate's status in this matter. The 
 
 1 Report of the Committee of Fifteen. P. 24. 
 
THE PERSONNEL OF THE STAFF 139 
 
 head of a school should be so sure of his choice 
 of men, that any criticism directed against 
 them, he may consider as a reflection upon his 
 own judgment. 
 
 There is, on the whole, but one word which 
 sums up the qualifications of a good teacher, and 
 that is Personality. "Rules," says Conover, 
 "count for very little, and in the long run for 
 worse, if the man is not behind . . . But if 
 there is the character worthy of the form, there 
 can not be too much stress laid upon the latter. 
 The outward expression is what first catches the 
 attention, and is the natural medium for 
 thoughts high, or thoughts low. ' ' * 
 
 "Lord God," commented Thomas Elyot, 
 "How many good and clean wits of children be 
 now-a-days perished by ignorant school- 
 masters!" 1 
 
 1 Personality in Education ; Conover. P. 16. 
 a Education during the Renaissance ; Wood- 
 ward. P. 290. 
 
LOCATION AND EQUIPMENT 
 
 THERE is an American tendency to 
 judge value by price, but it is not 
 advantage-taking in that respect, 
 which is responsible for the compara- 
 tively high charges that the junior boarding- 
 school has to make. The school, primarily, 
 should not be a business enterprise ; yet the fact 
 remains that it must be successful financially, to 
 be successful educationally. The economics of 
 administration are left for discussion to a follow- 
 ing chapter, but even here it must be borne in 
 mind that the cost of the school's premises and 
 equipment, is in direct ratio to its proximity to 
 a metropolis from which the majority of its 
 patronage may be expected. However safe the 
 boy may be in care of a boarding-school, and in 
 fact, however much better off by living in a 
 district decidedly distant from the city, it still 
 seems to hold true that parents feel more secure 
 if the boy is less remotely situated, and are, no 
 doubt, willing to pay an extra price for a larger 
 sense of security and ease of mind. Then too, 
 they are able to visit the lad with greater facil- 
 
 140 
 
LOCATION AND EQUIPMENT 141 
 
 ity; really an unfortunate thing in most cases, 
 and yet a situation that for the present, must be 
 endured. 
 
 Generally speaking, a radius of fifty miles 
 from a metropolis is the greatest distance that 
 should be considered in determining the location 
 of a school for young boys. Within that radiua, 
 from even the Atlantic Seaboard cities, a reason- 
 ably high altitude and sufficiently rural isolation 
 may be secured. If the school must begin in a 
 homestead converted to its use, many perplex- 
 ities arise; yet even old buildings may be 
 renovated, and be very suitably arranged for 
 the purposes of a small school. It is infinitely 
 better, however, to have an establishment espe- 
 cially designed and built; one which offers the 
 conditions under which the best work may be ac- 
 complished. 
 
 There is something so pleasing and practical 
 in the English type of school architecture, that 
 one should hardly fail to follow it in the erection 
 of a plant. As the junior school will probably 
 fix thirty boys as its capacity, one building with 
 connected wings, the gymnasium excepted, can 
 very well supply all necessary accommodation*. 
 The stable, garage, etc., would be separate of 
 course. There is a great question whether there 
 ia any need of a gymnasium for gymmurt.im. t 
 
142 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 apparatus work is unnecessary for pre-adol- 
 escents, and the plan of the school should b 
 toward open-air activities. Dressing-rooms and 
 "showers" are quite necessary, but they might 
 be in the basement of the main building. As a 
 basket-ball court, a place for school entertain- 
 ments and receptions, public exercises and the 
 like, a gymnasium is of great use, and to afford 
 extra seating capacity, a gallery can very easily 
 be combined with a suspended running-track. 
 The swimming-pool is, no doubt, another im- 
 portant side of the gymnasium, but it may be in 
 a building by itself. Many schools oppose them 
 on the grounds that they are un-hygienic, and 
 expensive to build and operate. The personal 
 observation of the writer leads to the conclusion 
 that not infrequently in schools and Young 
 Men 's Christian Associations the swimming-pools 
 have been more the source of moral than of 
 physical contagion, but that adequately super- 
 vised and judiciously used, they serve the cause 
 of health and decency, as much, if not more, 
 than many of the other sides of the school. Be- 
 sides this, they add to the school's equipment an 
 attraction appealing to the boy-universal, and 
 hence of the greatest advertising value. But to 
 return to the school building itself. 
 
LOCATION AND EQUIPMENT 14S 
 
 The basement of the building or building! 
 should include the central heating-plant, toilets, 
 laundry, store-rooms, repair shop, and perhaps 
 the manual-training and dressing rooms. The 
 main floor of the main building may include the 
 school office, the headmaster's study, the public 
 reception rooms, the boys' living-room, the 
 chapel and the general hall. On the second floor, 
 and the third if necessary, will be the dormi- 
 tories, quarters for headmaster and assistants, 
 etc., etc. Each dormitory should have a wash- 
 room, bath, and toilet adjoining for night use. 
 One wing of the school should be given over to the 
 dining-room, kitchen, pantries, etc., with the ser- 
 vants quarters above, and the other wing to class- 
 rooms, school-room, laboratory, etc., etc. 
 
 The chapter on The Day's Work discusses at 
 length the morning and evening routine of the 
 dormitory. Two alcove dormitories with a capa- 
 city of fifteen boys each, with a master's room 
 apiece, might be so arranged as to use the same, 
 or adjacent wash-rooms and toilets, thus minim- 
 ising the expense and care of plumbing. The 
 winter dressing-room as suggested, might also be 
 common property, with its essential function the 
 provision of a comfortable place in cold weather, 
 when the dormitory, with its windows wide open 
 over night, is far too chilly a place to dress in, 
 
144 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 even for the unpampered. The boys should have 
 a special stairway, constructed with the idea of 
 reducing noise, and fire-proof. In a separate 
 and convenient portion of the building, the linen- 
 room, house-keeper's quarters, guest rooms, and 
 the infirmary should be located. 
 
 Edward R. Shaw, in his book, "School 
 Hygiene, ' ' gives a most comprehensive discussion 
 on the hygienic conditions that should obtain in 
 the school * * per se. " It is an easy matter to take 
 his manual, or Dr. Arthur Newsholmes's on the 
 same subject for an English point of view, and 
 determine the best way to light, ventilate, deco- 
 rate and equip a school-room; secure sanitary 
 and sufficient lavatories and drainage; provide 
 adequate bath facilities; and decide where and 
 how to locate the play-ground. This book on the 
 contrary is designed more to call attention to the 
 various needs of the junior school, than to attack 
 in detail the broad question of school hygiene for 
 instance, so admirably discussed by far better 
 authorities. Beyond this there are many more 
 conditions requiring thought in the planning and 
 operation of a new country boarding-school, 
 upon which additional bibliographies might be 
 offered. The culinary department might prove 
 the discussion of no small thesis. The chapel 
 question; the comfortable living-room for the 
 
LOCATION AND EQUIPMENT 146 
 
 boys together with the halls and dining-room- 
 all appropriately decorated and adequately fur- 
 nished; particulars of construction and equip- 
 ment, present no end of side-issues, equally im- 
 portant. Still, exhaustive research in these 
 directions might prove more of a nuisance and a 
 confusion than a benefit, and common-sense, the 
 judicious use of funds, and past experience, are 
 factors of far greater value. 
 
 Discussion, chiefly in England, has been 
 directed very energetically to matter of dor- 
 mitory arrangements. Some schoolmen hold to 
 the open dormitory idea, some to the cubicle 
 (that is, the alcove dormitory), and some to the 
 separate room scheme, the rooms being occupied 
 by one or more boys. The first plan the open 
 dormitory has the objection of institutionalism 
 and the advantage of publicity. The third plan 
 the separate room scheme, is unsatisfactory 
 because of the difficulty of supervision. It is 
 hard to tell whether a boy prone to wrong habits 
 and perverse conduct, would drag a good room- 
 mate down to his level. It is certain that he 
 would influence one indifferently good. It is a 
 question and a risk whether the decent fellow 
 could pull the offender up. Character is not as 
 strong is pre-adolescent years as later, and it is 
 hardly fair to put obstacles in its path, especially 
 
146 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 as these obstacles are most insidious and difficult 
 to combat because of a boy's normal curiousity 
 and possible secretiveness. The cubicle then 
 or the alcove dormitory plan seems to solve 
 the problem, for while it affords the boy such 
 privacy as he needs, at the same time it allows 
 a ready surveillance by the master in a way 
 less objectionable than the opening of closed 
 doors an act which may be suggestive to the 
 master and boy alike, of wrong-doing and is 
 certainly offensive to a sound-minded man. Then 
 too, the comaraderie of the alcove-dormitory is 
 excellent, and the common, open life of the group 
 is in itself the strongest influence against wrong- 
 doing. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to connote the fact that 
 the dormitories should never be used during the 
 day, even for the purpose of preparing for meals 
 if this could be arranged elsewhere. Among the 
 few school rules, there should be one affording 
 the sanctity of the cubicle. It is with no non- 
 sensically prudish notion that this is demanded, 
 but simply because it is the boy's right to have 
 a place he may call his own, where he may keep 
 his own "things" inviolate, and where he may 
 retire in times of stress. This regulation should 
 increase self-respect if anything, and work for 
 order and regularity. Although the boys should 
 
LOCATION AND EQUIPMENT 147 
 
 be required to keep their clothes-locker in order, 
 their bureaus neat, and their chairs unlitereded 
 except at night it will hardly be the policy 
 of the school, unless it is a school of small charges 
 where it is distinctly understood that the boys 
 are to share domestic duties, to require bed- 
 making, sweeping, and the like. Those occupa- 
 tions are very well practiced in camp and mili- 
 tary school, but here they are better left to the 
 care of servants. This suggests a comment about 
 the house-mother, who may, or may not, be house- 
 keeper as well. It is she who must have the 
 general supervision of domestic affairs and give 
 her personal attention to the care and comfort 
 of the boys. In the matter of selection, she is of 
 no less importance than the masters, and she 
 should be very much the type of woman sug- 
 gested by the quotation from Dr. Henderson on 
 page 130. 
 
 The outside equipment of the school comes in 
 for its share of thought as well. There should 
 be a garden where the boy may make practical 
 experiments in fruit, flower and vegetable rais- 
 ing; the farm which he may learn to cultivate 
 in order to properly superintend his own estate 
 in the future ; the woods and fields to roam ; and 
 a lake or river Nature's swimming-pool in the 
 warm wtather. If fond of animals he should 
 
148 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 have the opportunity for some participative in- 
 terest in the care of the horses, the cows, and the 
 chickens. If mechanically inclined, there should 
 also be chances for an outlet of energy and ser- 
 vice in that direction. Then there are artificial 
 recreation grounds to be provided: the ball- 
 fields, the tennis-courts, the golf-links, the 
 cricket-creases, and the like. And how unfor- 
 tunate it is that that delightful, gentleman's 
 sport cricket finds such little support in 
 America when we have been willing to import 
 golf and tennis from across the Atlantic, and 
 yet ignore a game of greater skill and pleasure 
 than our decidedly rowdyish base-ball, or very 
 rough foot-ball. 
 
 The whole temper of the school's location and 
 equipment, must sum up in the word "homi- 
 ness." There is no other environment for the 
 young boy that will prove successful, if he is 
 expected to maintain his individuality, and not 
 become a mere automaton. He needs surround- 
 ings that are simple and yet superior. His 
 vitality may prove overcharged from time to 
 time, and perhaps the furniture may suffer; but 
 that difficulty may be worked off with the ap- 
 proach of adolescence. He should learn to ap- 
 preciate good furnishings and good decorations. 
 Trash should not be placed in his way to en- 
 
LOCATION AND EQUIPMENT 14* 
 
 courage careless treatment. A school that adopt* 
 a policy of allowing distructiveness on the basis 
 that the boy may thus discharge his animal 
 spirits, and punishes the deed by charging the 
 demolition on the bill, is the factor in the produc- 
 tion of a boor, not of a gentleman; and even 
 boys, with all the good times and "rough-house" 
 they are privileged to have, need not relapse 
 while enjoying those conditions, into a state of 
 barbaric ciudeness indoors. 
 
XI 
 THE ECONOMICS OP THE SCHOOL 
 
 THE cost of administration and main- 
 tenance for a public institution may be 
 easily determined from annual reports, 
 and compared with other reports. In 
 this way the cost of operation is definitely known, 
 and a basis for economy established. The private 
 school however has no occasion for giving away 
 its financial affairs. Indeed, if one school has 
 found a particularly advantageous method of 
 administration, it will see to it that no rival 
 learns its secret If, on the contrary, it is in 
 deep waters in respect to money matters, it will 
 surely make every possible effort to keep the 
 situation quiet. It is useless to look to the 
 figures of the public school for any basis of cal- 
 culation. Even the salaries there are vastly 
 different, as no "home 1 ' is included. Outside 
 of their board and lodging, the under-masters in 
 a junior school will command from $800 up a 
 year. These are very low salaries to figure on, 
 and good men should not be sacrificed to a 
 few hundred dollars. A school for thirty boys 
 160 
 
THE ECONOMICS OF THE SCHOOL 151 
 
 would require three masters besides the head. 
 The other salaried person, providing the head- 
 master does some of his own "office work," is 
 the house-mother, or house-keeper. One of the 
 undermasters could very likely fill the office of 
 secretary. 
 
 The location of the school in respect to its 
 proximity to the city governs rental and food 
 cost to a great degree ; hence the nearer the city, 
 the higher the charges of the school must be. 
 During the early years of its existence, it is 
 doubtful if the school would be filled to its 
 capacity thirty boys, and if it is certain it will 
 not, a smaller teaching staff may be engaged; 
 the table expense will be somewhat, but not pro- 
 portionately reduced; and there may be some 
 saving in labor, fuel, lights, laundry, etc. The 
 main fixed charges are almost the same however 
 for twenty as for thirty pupils. 
 
 Were the plant put in operation at an expense 
 of $40,000, let us say, the capital invested should 
 be expected to net 5%. That would mean the 
 same thing as an annual rental of $2,000, so in 
 the suggested schedule of expense on page 155, 
 it is really immaterial whether the investment is 
 a private one, or incorporated. 
 
 There is only one way of presenting a conser- 
 vative prospectus; that is, by maximising the 
 
162 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 expenses and minimising the receipts. Even 
 with a most careful effort made in this direction, 
 the value of the schedule lies chiefly in the fact 
 that it may stimulate criticism or awaken some 
 school to the realisation of a point where expen- 
 ditures may be reduced, or its income increased. 
 
 The steward of a widely patronised summer 
 hotel, and formerly maitre d 'hotel in one of the 
 large Boston hostelries, is authority for the 
 statement, that, generally speaking, it should be 
 possible to feed a household very well, at the 
 present high prices of provisions, of forty people 
 and those sitting at the servants' table as well, 
 at an average of $40 per day for the whole. 
 
 As to advertising, scarcely too liberal an ap- 
 propriation can be made in that direction during 
 the first few years of the school, until its * ' loving 
 friends" are numerous and strong. When the 
 capacity of the school has been reached, and the 
 clientele assured, it is still necessary for the 
 school to keep itself before the public, in order 
 to obtain the share of business to which it is 
 entitled. 
 
 There is no reason why a high-grade school of 
 this type should not charge $800 per year. Some 
 junior boarding schools ask $1,000 and get it 
 too. Others, more remotely situated charge but 
 $500 or $600. In this schedule, $750 is allowed, 
 
THE ECONOMICS OF THE SCHOOL 153 
 
 although really, for what the school is proposing 
 to spend and provide, it should ask more. It 
 can, with a successful record, and a waiting-list, 
 increase its charges from year to year, but it 
 should not make the business error of starting 
 at too high a figure. 
 
 There is a small secondary source of income 
 profit on books, athletic association membership 
 fees (over and above the expense of games), etc., 
 etc., of which no account is taken. It is simply 
 the object of these figures to show as Mr. Black 
 says : If the popular breeze fills the sails of the 
 preparatory school, it may make good weather." 
 In other words ; though the school may prove no 
 El Dorado, it may, under careful financial man- 
 agement, prove a moderately successful venture 
 in the terms of dollars and cents, as well as in 
 respect to educational results. 
 
 If business acumen and pedagogic ability only 
 walked hand in hand, the wail of the school pro- 
 prietor would be less frequently heard. Unfor- 
 tunately commercialism and this phase of pro- 
 fessionalism are seldom fellow-travellers. It 
 would almost seem that some business training 
 for the headmaster were as indispensable as the 
 
 1 Special Reports. Great Britain. Education 
 Dept. Vol. VI. P. 417. 
 
154 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 college degree, so carefully affixed to his name 
 in the literature of the school. 
 
 The school must adopt the policy of keeping 
 its equipment modern, and adding to the same 
 each year, in order that competitors may not 
 surpass it It needs to adopt another policy 
 also; i. e., one of setting a good table, keeping 
 the buildings adequately lighted, sufficiently 
 heated, properly cleaned, and comfortably 
 equipped. That is to say, anything indicative 
 of miserliness, must find no place. Boys are not 
 only keen critics, but their stories exaggerate 
 outside the school walls; and really, being 
 charged a first-class price, they are entitled to 
 first-class care. 
 
 The following prospectus indicates, with a 
 capital of $40,000 to invest in a school establish- 
 ment, when once the clientele could be estab- 
 lished, that the venture (note rental and sink- 
 ing fund appropriations), would pay 5% or bet- 
 ter net, in addition to the salary allowed the 
 headmaster, should he happen to be the pro- 
 prietor as well 
 
 ANNUAL RECEIPTS 
 
 Tuition and board, 30 boys at $750 each, $22,500 
 Laundry, mending, etc., 30 boys at 
 
 $50 each, 1,500 
 
 Total, $24,000 
 
THE ECONOMICS OP THE SCHOOL 1*1 
 
 ANNUAL EXPENDITURES 
 
 Salaries, $5,100 
 
 Headmaster, $1,500 
 
 Master, 1,200 
 
 Master, 1,000 
 
 Master, 800 
 
 House-keeper, 600 
 
 Wages, $2,910 
 
 Cook, 360 
 
 Maid, 240 
 
 3 Maids, 9 months, 540 
 
 Laundress, 9 months, 270 
 
 Assistant, 9 months, 180 
 
 Man, 480 
 
 Assistant, 360 
 
 Linen-room keeper, 480 
 
 Food allowance for the year, 9,000 
 
 Kental (including taxes), 2,000 
 Sinking-fund (summer repairs, new 
 
 equipment, etc.), 2,000 
 
 Advertising, 1,500 
 
 Fuel, lighting, up-keep, etc., 1,490 
 
 Total, $24,000 
 
 Should a school of this type be started on 
 rented premises, a capital of $40,000 would 
 more than see it through its alterations and 
 
116 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 assure it a backing for several years. If it were 
 purchasing land and building, the funds for 
 such a purpose would have to be raised through 
 a mortgage or bond issue, if unprovided for in 
 any other way say through endowment, which 
 is improbable for a school of this class in 
 America. The sinking fund allows a bond issue 
 of $40,000 on a 5% basis, and certainly this, with 
 $40,000 stock, should put the school well in funds 
 towards the erection and equipment of a plant. 
 There is always more or less philanthropy at- 
 tached to starting any school and yet, if the 
 promoters will count returns in results with the 
 boys as well as in money, the undertaking offers 
 no end of satisfaction. 
 
 The matter of advertising is a branch of the 
 business end of the school that the average head- 
 master has not the power to cope with to best 
 advantage, owing, again, to lack of business ex- 
 perience. The judicious following-up of en- 
 quiries is unquestionably of vital importance. 
 The recommendation of the school by friends it 
 the best sort of publicity, and a social represen- 
 tative in various districts to co-operate with 
 moderate public advertising, is of far greater 
 value than " display " in the periodicals. Splurge 
 in advertising is to be avoided as a deadly sin, 
 if the school is to maintain a first-class rank. 
 However home-like the school may be, however 
 
THE ECONOMICS OF THE SCHOOL 167 
 
 strong in its influence for good, it could make no 
 greater error than to indulge in such expressions 
 as " strong moral influence," " cultured Chris- 
 tian home surroundings," etc., etc., in its ad- 
 vertisements. Unless very well-known, the name 
 of the headmaster probably contributes little 
 towards the value of the advertisement; but if 
 prominent men are identified in any way with 
 the school, perhaps their names might be dis- 
 creetly displayed. The school catalogue must 
 conform in dignity with the tone of its other 
 advertising, and bear no ear-marks of the 
 ' 'quack." Supplementary advertisement in the 
 matter of entertaining prospective patrons, is 
 important too, as in such a case, their opinion of 
 the school through personal touch, is in the 
 making. 
 
 To sum up the prospects of economic success, 
 we have first to say that it depends upon the 
 health and personality of the headmaster, 
 secondly, upon the personnel of his assistants, 
 and thirdly upon the location and equipment of 
 the school. When the time arrives in which 
 public-spirited men of wealth appreciate the 
 full value of the junior boarding-schools, and 
 will not only send their sons to them more 
 generally, but will endow them as well, then this 
 type of institution will come into its full power 
 of maturity in America. The headmaster will 
 
158 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 be relieved of the constant financial anxiety that 
 impends, and his efforts will be more freely and 
 unbrokenly directed towards the welfare of his 
 pupils. The man who realises that the sub- 
 preparatory boarding-school has a future before 
 it in this country, is the man who will start in 
 the work now to be assured of a position on the 
 "ground floor," and if he handles developments 
 with care, there is no reason why he himself 
 should not enjoy success, rather than merely 
 leaving his experiences on the educational path- 
 way, to prove guide-posts to those who follow 
 after. "But/ 1 as Mr. Black says, "with the 
 preparatory school headmaster the question of 
 finance is ever present, and he ought to realise 
 from the first that he must give it as much con- 
 sideration as it receives from the successful man 
 of business, though he must not expect the same 
 gilded results. In the preparatory school which 
 is to command success in the present era of fierce 
 competition the Head must be not only Teacher 
 in school and Housemaster at other hours, but 
 also an able Cashier, who can handle, distribute 
 and appraise at their true value, the funds that 
 are necessary to make his school as attractive 
 and efficient as possible." 1 
 
 1 Special Reports ; Great Britain. Education 
 Dept VoLVI. P. 413. 
 
XII 
 SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 
 
 IT is impossible to forecast with any degree 
 of accuracy the multiplicity of minor de- 
 tails that will confront the headmaster of 
 a junior boarding-school. Beyond the 
 broader problems already discussed, a few 
 specific conditions are certainly worthy of our 
 thought, each one of which however might be 
 the subject of a book in itself. 
 
 EXAMINATIONS 
 
 There has been much discussion of late yean 
 about the respective merits and demerits of the 
 "formal examination." It is now somewhat 
 under the ban of the reformer, and yet it is 
 an indispensable agent of education. Bagley says 
 that "the very essence of an examination is it* 
 formal character. So-called informal examina- 
 tions or tests may be valuable for certain pur- 
 poses, but they entirely miss the virile virtue 
 that the examination, in the strenuous sense of 
 the term, possesses. The function of the exam- 
 ination as a test of the pupil's knowlege is not 
 
 159 
 
160 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 of paramount importance, but its function as an 
 organising agency of knowledge is supreme. The 
 period of intense application preceding the exam- 
 ination represents the burning-point of atten- 
 tion. It is a strain to be sure, but a strain that 
 pays. The Little children and the weaklings may 
 wisely be exempted from its operation; but for 
 the great majority of pupils . . . above the 
 age of eight, the examination is the agency of 
 formal education 'par excellence.' "' 
 
 On page 60 there is an acknowledgement of the 
 value of informal education. It is not proposed 
 to recant on this position, for examinations can 
 be introduced at term-ends without teaching 
 every lesson in a formal, conventional way. 
 Such tests as these certainly do tend towards 
 standardising work, and there is no reason for 
 making them out to be the perfect bugbears that 
 they seem to be to some pupils, if the work has 
 been thoroughly covered and really learned, by 
 one method or another, as the various courses 
 have proceeded. In fact, boys might just as well 
 anticipate examinations as mental competitions, 
 and prepare for them somewhat in the same 
 spirit as class athletics are gotten ready for. 
 They should present no element of fear, and 
 
 Educative Process; Bagley. P. 333. 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 161 
 
 such mental suggestion on the master's part 
 should never be tolerated by the headmaster. 
 Who knows but that the instructor has used the 
 examination as the "big stick/' until the pupila 
 have come to dread what naturally should prove 
 an interesting contest? It should be, con- 
 tinues Bagley, "from the pupil's standpoint an 
 important test of successful work. If a boy 
 realises that success or failure depends upon 
 'passing his finals' he has one of the most power- 
 ful motives the motive of pride for success- 
 ful effort. In this sense it is true that the ex- 
 amination is a device; for the end of knowledge 
 is application, not organisation. But if our main 
 contention is valid, if organisation is the most im- 
 portant factor in promoting efficient recall, 
 then the examination is a legitimate means to a 
 final end, and probably the most effective instru- 
 ment that is at the command of the school for 
 the purpose." 1 
 
 It is not difficult to gauge the capacity of the 
 pupils in respect to the amount of energy they 
 command for examinations. One general rule 
 for young boys should be that the examination 
 have a two-hour limit, or better, an hour and a 
 half. In hot weather certain concessions might 
 
 1 Educative Process; Bagley. P. 334. 
 
162 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 be made. Dr. Newsholme states that "the oc- 
 currence of headaches, restlessness, irritability 
 and inability to fix the attention, are finger-posts 
 showing over-work in preparation for examina- 
 tions, and should receive early attention. " l Is 
 it not possible that the same conditions should be 
 expressed through fear on the part of some boy 
 who has wilfully shirked his daily preparations f 
 In such a case there is a decidedly psycho- 
 physiological interpretation of those symptoms 
 to be made. Dr. Moll suggests that the strain 
 of examinations frequently has a prejudicial 
 sexual influence upon boys in early adolescence. 
 But the chance for such a malinfluence occurs so 
 seldom in this way, and so frequently in other 
 ways, that the examination can hardly be ruled 
 out on that basis. 
 
 Monthly tests, of shorter duration perhaps 
 only the length of a school hour are of great 
 advantage. They pave the way informally for 
 the term examination. Were they more formal, 
 a certain monthly grade might excuse the pupil 
 from the term examination, but this plan is bet- 
 ter advised in the secondary than in the element- 
 ary school The final examination for the year 
 should not, however, be the only factor in deter- 
 
 1 School Hygiene ; Newsholme. P. 68. 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 161 
 
 mining promotion; and in the case of monthly 
 tests, their results may be very fairly averaged 
 with the class mark to secure a record of the 
 work for the monthly report to parents. 
 
 MARKS AND REPORTS 
 
 Every school faces the situation of having to 
 send periodic reports to parents concerning the 
 boy's progress. It is not always easy to indicate 
 a boy's advancement and relation to the school 
 in terms of percentages or letter-grades; but it 
 is a good thing for the parents to be kept in touch 
 with the school, and conversely, the school to be 
 kept in touch with the parents. How much the 
 boy benefits from too close a criticism of his 
 standing, is a question. If his school work and 
 spirit are satisfactory, a proportionate record 
 will no doubt prove a continued stimulus of 
 constant, conscious efforts towards still higher 
 achievements. If, on the contrary, he is a poor 
 student, his marks when compared with those 
 of other boys, might prove discouraging. The 
 mental capacities and motives of individuals are 
 so different and variable, that it is hardly square 
 to judge the less-talented boy who makes an 
 earnest effort and falls short of the goal, on the 
 same basis with the boy who is naturally more 
 gifted and learns his lessons with apparent ease. 
 
14 YOUNG BOTS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 This same observation extends in general to the 
 marking of examination papers. If the school 
 can lead the boy to establish his own ideal stan- 
 dard, then he may be graded in the light of the 
 same. If this marking is done by a careful and 
 conscientious teacher, the outcome should be 
 thoroughly satisfactory. It would show whether 
 the lad had done his best, not whether he had 
 done more or less, or better or worse, than his 
 fellow-students. This is a rather idealistic task 
 to set the school, yet here, as in other instances, 
 the institution should respond to the demands 
 upon it that are consonant with the welfare of 
 the pupil 
 
 If the motive for work in a school is simply 
 the glory of marks, it would not be surprising to 
 see a boy produced who, in the years to come, 
 would find his only satisfaction in the lust for 
 gain. The school should see that the element of 
 social service enters into the lad's make-up, and 
 it should not thwart its own object, by yielding 
 too strongly to the conventional "report," 
 simply because it is the readiest way out of the 
 difficulty. The elementary school might con- 
 sistently render a monthly account of the boy's 
 work graded somewhat as follows: 
 
 "A" Excellent work, 10090$ 
 
 "B" Satisfactory work, 90 SQ% 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 161 
 
 *C" Fair work, 80 70^ 
 
 'D" Poor work, 
 
 E" Unsatisfactory work, 6050^ 
 
 It would be unnecessary to make any finer 
 differences, except when absolutely perfect work 
 was produced ; in which case, a special note could 
 be made. An average of "A" and "B" work 
 and conduct should entitle the pupil to a credit 
 holiday. The standard for the individual might 
 be rather rigidly drawn, so that the two higher 
 ranks will be really significant of honor stand- 
 ing. In determining a general average, other 
 matters besides mere lessons should have their 
 gradings; Conduct with a value of two points 
 for instance, Attendance one point, Neatness and 
 Carriage, one point, etc., etc. The point value 
 of the lesson-subjects has had its discussion in 
 the chapter on the Curriculum. 
 
 The position taken by the Interlaken School 
 near LaPorte, Indiana the American type of 
 Dr. Reddie's ' ' Abbotsholme ' ' in England is in- 
 teresting to note as indicative of a modern trend 
 in educational administration. In its catalogue, 
 under the caption, ''Reports to Parents/' it says; 
 "The school is an enlarged family and takes up 
 the training of the child in co-operation with the 
 parent. The active interest of the parents in the 
 
166 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 progress of the boy, information regarding his 
 disposition and suggestions concerning the 
 studies, will aid in making our work fruitful 
 Parents will be kept in close touch with the 
 school A full report in the form of a personal 
 letter from the Directors will be made from time 
 to time. The boys will be required to write home 
 regularly" 1 
 
 This is an admirable plan, and is worthy of 
 general consideration and introduction. The boy 
 is encouraged to do his best so that his own 
 report each week to his father or mother may be 
 good. And the school sends its official notices 
 when occasions arise. 
 
 REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 It is the duty of the school to bring clearly 
 before the boy's mind, the Law of Causal Rela- 
 tions. If delinquencies of conduct and in work 
 should be punished and there is no question but 
 that they should be, and in the most effectual 
 manner at that improvement and excellence, 
 on the contrary, should be rewarded. And fur- 
 ther, the reward must not simply be for the one 
 who may stand ahead of all others, but for every 
 one who has earned it, and besides this, the 
 
 1 Interlaken School; 19081909 Catalogue. 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 167 
 
 reward must be a positive asset. The boy if 
 often told that goodness will bring its own 
 reward; but like everything else, if that reward 
 is not tangible, he will be very sure to change the 
 time-honored aphorism into "Be good and you'll 
 be miserable. " 
 
 Rewards resolve into two classes; (1) the 
 cumulative that take the form of honors and 
 prizes at the end of a school term or year, (2) 
 and periodic those coming from time to time 
 during the school year. Instances of the first 
 class find expression for example in the "star 
 system," and of the second class, in the "credit- 
 holiday system,'* both in successful operation at 
 the Morristown School. The two systems are 
 non-competitive, and have been tried out with 
 considerable satisfaction. 
 
 The "star system" was introduced from a 
 similar plan in vogue at the Mostyn House 
 School, near Chester, England, but it abandoned 
 the "bar" included in the English system which 
 counted a double-unit off the "stars," on the 
 ground that it was a mistake to make a lad's 
 short-comings too conspicuous of record better 
 to remember such good things as are possible 
 from a boy's experience, and let the evil things, 
 after their atonement, remain a sub-conscious 
 background to his thought. The "stars" accord- 
 
168 TOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 ing to the words of the prospectus of Mostyn 
 House School, are given "for any piece of work 
 of unusual merit, considering the particular 
 boy's ability e. g., a faultless exercise, a good 
 piece of translation, a first-rate drawing copy, a 
 piece of music well-learned and played, or even 
 for consistent effort to become smart at drill . 
 . . Thus prizes are given for real earnestness, 
 for doing one's duty and a little more. 'Stars' 
 are not easy to get, and are not given to boys for 
 being 'top of their class'; they are not for 
 cleverness, but for real earnestness. ' ' * The star 
 plan itself has a still wider range at the Morris- 
 town School. There, at the beginning of the 
 academic year, the Lower School list is publicly 
 posted, with sufficient space after each boy's 
 name to provide for the pasting up of paper 
 stars at mid-terms and term-ends. Gold stars are 
 used to indicate earnestness in scholarship, red 
 stars to show regularity and good spirit in out- 
 of-door activities, green stars to express excep- 
 tionally good conduct (and attendance) and the 
 right school attitude, and blue stars for con- 
 scientious efforts towards personal neatness, good 
 form, and manners. Each star is a unit of equal 
 value. The maximum obtainable in a year may 
 
 1 Mostyn House School Prospectus, 1910. Pp. 
 22, 23. 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 169 
 
 be fixed at any number, depending upon the 
 frequency with which they are awarded, but 
 usually fifty, and towards the end of the school 
 year, boys having received over thirty, over 
 twenty, and over fifteen are presented with 
 prizes, usually in the form of gold, silver, or 
 bronze stars, bearing the school monogram in 
 colors, and suitable for use as a clasp or stick- 
 pin. 
 
 The credit-holidays however, depend on the 
 monthly record, and entitle the winner to twenty- 
 four hours leave of absence from the school, 
 preferably from a Saturday to a Sunday after- 
 noon. The granting of these depends not only 
 upon a certain standing in scholarship, but upon 
 good spirit and conduct as well, so that the fair 
 scholar who has achieved a good record has even 
 a better chance of the much-coveted "credit" 
 than the cleverer student who does not live up to 
 the requirements of the school in other directions. 
 
 In determining the conditions affecting the 
 privilege of an irregular exeat, the headmaster 
 has to be the judge and no suggestions may be 
 made except that, in every boarding-school, the 
 fewer the irregularities, the simpler the admin- 
 istration. Day-boys, in this respect are apt to 
 be a disturbing element, and if the school can 
 prosper without them, so much the better. 
 
170 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 In the same school that the ' ' star system ' ' and 
 the "credit holiday" are being used to ad- 
 vantage, there is an ingenious plan of punish- 
 ment for minor and major offences. While it is 
 true that punishment "in kind" is logical, it is 
 not always practicable with the small boy, and 
 might even prove more of an amusement than a 
 discipline. Some boys, even at an early age, will 
 appreciate the fact that the real punishment for 
 their short-comings lies, not in the disciplinary 
 measures that may directly be meted out to them, 
 but in their failure to obtain the rewards that go 
 to others who are steadier in behavior. But this 
 is an exceptionally far-sighted view to expect of 
 a pre-adolescent, and as it is one of the duties of 
 the school to teach the boy self-control through 
 obedience, it is obvious that cause and effect 
 should have a prompt and vigorous expression. 
 For major offences the Morristown School allows 
 three public "censures" before a boy is dis- 
 missed, for minor offences in the Lower School 
 there is "the track." Delinquencies are punish- 
 able by marks in units of three, five, ten, fifteen, 
 etc., and each mark needs to be served off by 
 walking one lap alone around the quarter-mile 
 athletic track, under supervision of the master in 
 charge for the day, during free time time in 
 which schoolmates without penalties are at their 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL in 
 
 afternoon sports. The advantages of this system 
 are obvious; it allows the boy to "work off his 
 steam" in the open air, it makes him realise that 
 he can not play and serve off marks at the same 
 time, it is an individual matter, and it imposes 
 no penalty that would tend to make school-work 
 irksome, such as the requirement of "lines. 11 It 
 has been found by experience to satisfy prac- 
 tically all the disciplinary exigencies. It is 
 hardly fair to spoil a small boy's school record 
 by censuring him. His mistakes seldom really 
 belong to the major class. It would be better to 
 spank him, if there were not such a maudlin 
 sentiment against corporal punishment on the 
 part of American parents. A spanking is a won- 
 der-worker in some instances, and the testimony 
 of many uncontrolled young men in college to- 
 day, is to the effect that they would have been 
 better off had they been more strenuously 
 punished in childhood. But it is a mistake to 
 leave the chastisements, if they are to be admin- 
 istered, to the hands of boy-praef ects, who seldom 
 know when to stop. It is a punishment useful 
 only if immediately administered, and done at 
 that by one having the proper authority. 
 
 Dr. Albert Moll thinks that there is some dan- 
 ger of boys experiencing sexual stimulation as 
 the result of corporal punishment "But," he 
 
171 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 adds, "although in this matter I find myself 
 in opposition to a great many physicians and 
 to not a few educationalists, I remain of the 
 opinion that we can not propose to do away alto- 
 gether with corporal punishment in our schools 
 (Germany) ... so long as certain other re- 
 forms are still wanting. Among the reforms 
 which are indispensable preliminaries to the com- 
 plete abolition of corporal punishment, is one 
 giving a greater power to expel insolent and un- 
 disciplined boys . . . The danger of an ex- 
 cessive use of powers of administering corporal 
 punishment, and more especially the danger of 
 awakening the sexuality of children prematurely 
 and with perverse associations, may be minimised 
 by the proper treatment of schoolmasters. We 
 must not treat our schoolmasters in such a way 
 that behind them they always feel the presence 
 of the inspector, compelling them to force the 
 pupils through the prescribed but excessive tasks. 
 Nor must the schoolmaster's own work be exces- 
 sive, for nervous overstrain will very readily lead 
 to outbursts of violence. It seems also desirable 
 that the right of administering corporal punish- 
 ment should not be entrusted to masters who are 
 still quite young, for a certain experience is 
 needed to guide them to a reasonable moderation. 
 . . . I have expressed the opinion that as far 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL ITS 
 
 as the possible effects on health are concerned, 
 and especially from the point of view of sexual 
 hygiene, blows upon the palm of the hand per- 
 haps constitute the least dangerous form of cor- 
 poral punishment. ' ' l 
 
 FAULTS. 
 
 A psychological and critical study of the faults 
 prevalent among boys is impossible within the 
 limits of these pages. It is not, in fact, the pur- 
 pose of this book to give an analysis of budding 
 criminality. But there are a few delinquencies 
 common to immature boys which are worthy of 
 brief comment from the school's point of view. 
 Theft in a small degree and lying to a great 
 degree are reasonably at the head of the list. 
 Within the writer's experience with young boys, 
 he has known of but few cases of minor purloin- 
 ing, and these were not attributable to klep- 
 tomania, but merely sporadic cases with the boys 
 in question, revenge being the prevailing cause. 
 The same boys, and others, who would not steal, 
 were very commonly found to be untruthful 
 Lies are really natural with the pre-adoleseent, 
 and boys are quite likely, under good moral guid- 
 
 1 Sexual Life of the Child; MolL Pp. 318, 
 319, 320. 
 
174 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 ance, to outgrow the habit, and pass the danger 
 zone. Truth with the child says Hall, * ' depends 
 largely upon personal likes and dislikes . . . 
 It is harder to cheat in school with a teacher 
 who is liked . . . The worst lies perhaps are 
 those of selfishness. They ease children over 
 many hard places in life, and are convenient 
 covers for weakness and vice. These lies are, on 
 the whole, . . . most prevalent. They are 
 also most corrupting, and hard to correct. All 
 bad habits particularly predispose to the lie of 
 concealment ; for those who do wrong are almost 
 certain to have recourse to falsehood." 1 
 
 Here is another "working hypothesis" not 
 only by contrast for fixing the development of 
 the truth-telling habit, but for the uncovering of 
 such evils as may exist in the school ranks. It is 
 a disagreeable task, this disclosing and correct- 
 ing of wrong-doing, but it is no less obligatory. 
 It takes patience, and tact, and love and never 
 the rod for aught but impertinence and disobe- 
 dience, and seldom then, unless "approved" 
 to break a boy of an uncontrolled imagina- 
 tion finding expression in falsehood. But, if 
 delinquencies are a pleasure to overcome, as 
 perhaps they may be, dishonesty and lying are 
 
 1 Youth; HalL P. 129. 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 176 
 
 more agreeable problems to solve than smoking 
 and self -abuse. The last two need no kid-gloved 
 attention if the welfare of the boy is at heart. 
 Both are apt to be found in any school, especially 
 in one where so many boys are approaching 
 puberty. But whatever fear parents may have 
 of these evils flourishing in a school, do not let 
 them be self-deceived by the idea that they are 
 absent from the immediate circle of the home. 
 At the school the attention of the headmaster and 
 his assistants should be directed towards the 
 elimination of both, or rather the prevention 
 for a prophylactic position is much wiser than a 
 therapeutic. But the task can not be done ex- 
 cept there be the closest bond of sympathy 
 between one of the masters preferably the dor- 
 mitory master and the boy, else the lies will be 
 told that Dr. Hall refers to, and little accom- 
 plished in the directions sought. 
 
 In respect to smoking, it is usually indulged in 
 because considered ' * smart. " It is doubtful if a 
 young boy ever finds real satisfaction in smoking 
 "on the sly." The argument to defeat the prac- 
 tice must rest wholly in the physiological reasons 
 against it. A partial explanation of its effects 
 upon the nervous systems of the immature, is 
 valueless. The boy needs a thorough wholesome 
 talk, and will usually respond thereto. Don't 
 
176 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 make the mistake of designating smoking as a 
 great crime, but assert emphatically that it is a 
 great mistake for any boy under the age of 
 twenty-one. The smoker is not so difficult to 
 detect. Never ask a boy whether he has been 
 smoking, if you are sure that he has been, and 
 thus give him an opportunity to lie out of the 
 dilemma. But ask him rather why he does 
 smoke, and talk the matter over seriously with 
 him ; not as if smoking per se were a great crime, 
 but simply a habit better postponed to manhood 
 for the reasons that you will show him. It is 
 probable that the boy will respond very frankly, 
 and a healthy conclusion of the matter reached. 
 
 Masturbation and attempts at sexual inter- 
 course are subtler evils. The latter, though more 
 frequently attempted by children than parents 
 think, is possible of elimination at least in act, 
 by the proper supervision of the boys, and in 
 thought, to a great degree by the influence of the 
 master, and by other occupations to fill the boy's 
 mind and time. The practice of self-abuse is 
 a more likely occurence. Indulged in solitarily, 
 it is unquestionably a psycho-physical rather 
 than a great moral deflection, but in mutual 
 practice, it can not be as readily condoned. But 
 like the question of smoking the matter should 
 be put up to each boy individually by the man 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 177 
 
 having his closest confidence. Medical views on 
 this subject and remedial suggestions have been 
 made on page 43. It is the greatest of all mis- 
 takes to punish a boy for this short-coming. He 
 may be dismissed from the school if the problem 
 'can not be solved there, but never punished 
 otherwise. Sexual education alone is the element 
 of salvation religious sentiment failing to prove 
 a real restraining power. "A child who has 
 been instructed regarding this grave and im- 
 portant matter ... in a proper manner, is 
 in a position to reject offers of a coarse method 
 of enlightenment; but by the customary too 
 long customary plan ... of altogether ig- 
 noring the sexual life, children are deprived of 
 the power of repelling obscene methods of en- 
 lightenment. ' ' * 
 
 RELIGION 
 
 It is a question how much of an influence re- 
 ligion is in a child's life. That it should have its 
 place in the school is not being contradicted, but 
 its practical, rather than its conventional value, 
 should be put to a test. How much does it con- 
 tribute to the boy 's character, and in what form 
 is that contribution made t 
 
 1 Sexual Life of the Child; Moll P. 286. 
 
178 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 Although reference has already been made to 
 the subject on pages 80 and 81, the question is no 
 means final there. The point of view of the 
 Interlaken School is worthy of notice: 
 
 "The basis of the home education is a varied 
 and healthy environment, intellectually and 
 aesthetically, morally, and emotionally stimulat- 
 ing, with ample varied invitation and opportun- 
 ity, to see, say and do, to get and to give, to lead 
 and to follow ; an environment that insures at all 
 points wholesome appeals to individual initiative 
 and social co-ordination in purpose and achieve- 
 ment; that rouses and lifts the instinct of 
 research, nourishes and elevates the aesthetic 
 We and the sympathies that lead to the estab- 
 lishment of ethical attitude and of the spirit of 
 reverence which underlies every phase of religi- 
 ous fervor; that all unconsciously guides the 
 growing being aright in its development and 
 renders it more and more worthy of the free- 
 dom it enjoys therein. Such an environment the 
 school will steadily seek to maintain in its organ- 
 isation and equipment, in the example of its 
 teachers and helpers, in its instructions and 
 discipline, its work and play, in class-room and 
 field, in the evening family gatherings and read- 
 ings as well as in the more formal general ex- 
 ercises. We do not try to lecture on religion to 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 171 
 
 our pupils, but to live religion before them and 
 with them. Our pupils must never see or hear 
 us scoff about sacred things, nor find us in- 
 different or indulgent about what is wrong. 
 They must observe in us reverence for what ia 
 holy, indignation at wrong-doing, pitying gentle- 
 ness for weakness, and boundless readiness at all 
 times to help everyone. ' ' l 
 
 And again, referring to Dr. Moll: "I do not 
 for a moment dispute the fact that a religious 
 education may effect admirable results, both in 
 respect of sexual matters, and of others. Indeed, 
 I am firmly convinced of this. But the religioua 
 education competent to do this does not consist 
 merely of learning Bible texts by heart; nor is 
 its chief aim the inculcation of precepts which 
 are to-day impossible of fulfilment as the child 
 sees at every turn in the conduct of the members 
 of its own environment. I refer to the religious 
 education which has an internal reality, and 
 arises spontaneously out of the demands of 
 morality. I do not mean the sort of education 
 which regards it almost as a disgrace that we 
 come naked into the world; not the religious 
 education which regards man as soiled by th 
 
 School; 19081909 
 B.1& 
 
180 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 fact that he is born from his mother's womb ; nor 
 that which considers every sexual act as essen- 
 tially sinful, and asceticism as man's salvation. 
 It is not religious education of such a kind that 
 will have any good effect in the matter of sexual 
 education; but that religious education only 
 which is in complete accord with our ideas of 
 morality, and which is based, not so much upon 
 the historical and material contents of the Bible, 
 as upon the eternal and everlasting truths of 
 religion." 1 
 
 The ideas of Dr. Moll and the Interlaken 
 School put a practical application on religion, 
 and make it something vital and vigorous not 
 merely formal and meaningless. 
 
 FORMAL DISCIPLINE. 
 
 At the risk of repetition, the doctrine of For- 
 mal Discipline is again expressed. It is the 
 theory that a particular power developed 
 through the pursuit of one study or occupation, 
 extends in general to all studies and occupations. 
 The educational world is divided into two great 
 forces, one supporting, and one arguing against 
 the validity of this theory. A school-master 
 must at least hope to see his efforts as compre- 
 
 1 Sexual Life of the Child ; MolL P. 273. 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 181 
 
 hensive as possible, and to believe that the power 
 of memory developed in the study of Latin for 
 example would not materially assist a boy's 
 memory in holding historical facts, or again, to 
 think that the habit of neatness required in the 
 dormitory would have to be learned all over 
 again to assure neatness in his desk in the school- 
 room, would be the source of endless discourage- 
 ment to the master, and almost the same draw- 
 back to the boy, were he able to think out even 
 the simplest psychological problem for himself. 
 So it must be with a cheerful optimism that the 
 master of a boarding-school joins the ranks of the 
 formal disciplinarians, looking forward to the 
 day when results will prove to him the wisdom 
 of his choice. 
 
 SELF-GOVERNMENT. 
 
 If this expression is taken to mean self-control; 
 by all means let us have it, and the sooner the 
 better; but if it is only the slogan of the fetich 
 of a pseudo-democracy, let it be carefully con- 
 sidered before it is introduced into our junior 
 schools. Perhaps the plan is well-advised for a 
 secondary school, but that is not the question at 
 issue here. As generally employed, the expres- 
 sion implies some system of government by a 
 committee elected from the rank and file. The 
 
182 TOUNQ BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 scheme has been worked out with some appear- 
 ance of success in the "school cities" which 
 flourish in the districts of New England and the 
 Middle West inhabited by the modernist, who, 
 in his eagerness to contribute a full-fledged unit 
 to a nation of politicians, has almost forgotten 
 the fundamental value of the " Three R's." In 
 some boarding-schools accepting boys from ten 
 to twenty,* student self-governing committees 
 formed of the older boys have worked out with 
 considerable success notably at the Morristown 
 School. For a school however that is to receive 
 pre-adolescent boys only, the plan is a poor one 
 to follow, for the boys themselves are too imma- 
 ture to have a judicial point of view. Granted 
 even that the boys may learn to be governed by 
 governing, * as they learn, concretely, about 
 flowers, for instance, by raising them, the propo- 
 sition is still without favor, as it must very 
 reasonably appear that boys should learn to ac- 
 cept law, before they are able to frame or to 
 interpret it. The "concrete" method of instruc- 
 tion can not set a standard by which every lesson 
 is to be learned, especially when there is a 
 change from the intellectual to the moral. 
 Enough has been said in this thesis to set a very 
 positive value on moral training, yet promiscu- 
 ous attempts at self-governing by boys who are 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 183 
 
 too young to appreciate the deeper significance 
 of government, and not old enough to subserve 
 the temporary animosities of childhood to the 
 ends of justice, are plainly injustices to the boy 
 in the fullest sense of the word. The spirit of 
 tale-bearing, of spying, of "getting even" for 
 petty wrongs, of electioneering for place and 
 power, needs no encouragement. Even with 
 small boys a periodic election bristles with poli- 
 tics, and the efficient office-holder is seldom found 
 to be popular. A system of praefects on the 
 contrary, following out the idea of Dr. Reddie's 
 "monarchic school," allows the co-operation of 
 the boys fit to co-operate, in the support of the 
 traditions, discipline and spirit of the school. 
 These praefects are appointed rather than 
 elected, and hold office, pendant upon their effi- 
 ciency, at the pleasure of the headmaster and 
 his associates. 
 
 Closely akin to the "self-government plan" 
 is the "honor system," which is unquestionably 
 too great a moral strain upon a red-blooded 
 small boy to have it, in all equity, forced upon 
 him. It gives him at least a very distorted idea 
 of honor an idea that anything "goes" if no 
 one is caught unfortunately the prevailing 
 American idea of the word to-day. The follow- 
 ing case is typical. 
 
184 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 A very good woman had been accustomed to 
 conduct a Bible Class each Sunday morning in 
 a class-room adjoining the school-room of a cer- 
 tain boarding-school. On one occasion she was 
 called out of the class-room, and closing the door 
 as she left, extorted a promise from the class that 
 it would behave "on its honor. " Anyone who 
 knows boys, and loves them, can appreciate what 
 followed. Hearing the disturbance, a master 
 who happened to be in the school-room, went to 
 speak to the boys. They had wind of his arrival 
 however, and before he could open the door, 
 were in perfect order. As he was suggesting a 
 little better order in no uncertain way, the gentle 
 lady appeared and found fault with him for 
 interfering with her class which was left "on its 
 honor." Now there is only one thing serious 
 about this little incident. It is not that the boys 
 were playful that is to be expected. It is not 
 that the teacher left the room that is legitimate. 
 It is not that the master interfered that was 
 inevitable and necessary. It is, that a woman, 
 thinking she was a strong factor in the moral 
 training of those boys, placed a premium on 
 slyness because she did not know boys, and 
 allowed them to think that such conduct was 
 honor, furthermore, she added to the obliquity 
 of her mistake, by criticising the master in the 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 185 
 
 presence of the boys. He, poor man, was merely 
 following the advice of a great English school- 
 master: "Trust boys? Certainly. Trust them 
 and watch them!" 
 
 SCHOOL ORGANISATIONS. 
 
 There is no better way of providing for com- 
 plete participation in school activities, both in- 
 doors and out, than by the establishment of two 
 clubs, to one or the other of which each boy must 
 belong. The numbers in each club should be 
 even, and the members chosen alternately from 
 the new boys, by the old-boy members and mas- 
 ters. These clubs might afford the boys some 
 very legitimate opportunity and practice in self- 
 management, under the counsel of one or more 
 masters. They offer a good way for an acquaint- 
 ance of parliamentary law, and introductory ex- 
 perience in government. For indoor activities, 
 such as dramatics and the like, one club would 
 be the audience, and the other the performers, 
 and this would alternate. For open-air sports 
 there would always be the nuclei of two teams. 
 By following this plan, the boys are "tried out," 
 and the best material may be selected to 
 represent the school, on the regular school teams. 
 At the same time provision is made for carrying 
 on school athletics in the most natural and sports- 
 
186 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 manlike way. There may be strong feeling on a 
 boy's part in favor of his own club, yet this is 
 sure to give precedence to his loyalty to the 
 school teams, and the esprit de corps of the school 
 as a whole is improved, rather than cut into, by 
 this scheme. 
 
 In the winter time, beside the indoor entertain- 
 ment that these two clubs would afford, there 
 would very likely flourish an organisation of 
 stamp collectors, of photographers, etc., etc., 
 drawing from the ranks of both. Hobbies of this 
 sort are worth encouraging as they have strong 
 educational values. 
 
 There is one time when perhaps club feeling 
 will give way to class spirit and that is when the 
 older boys are nearing the end of their work in 
 the Sixth Form, and awake to the consciousness 
 that they are the graduating class. It is for the 
 good of the school spirit that this sentiment be 
 encouraged, although commencements in a junior 
 school may always approach the irreducibly in- 
 formal without going far astray. 
 
 In regard to the athletic organisations as such, 
 they will naturally be " coached " by one of the 
 masters, and managed by another. A boy of ex- 
 ceptional ability may be an assistant manager, 
 but the main planning and business affairs of the 
 team should never be left entirely in a boy's 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 1IT 
 
 hands. Even older fellows fail to show absolute 
 competency and reliability in the management of 
 teams. 
 
 Secret societies will of course be under the ban, 
 and hazing should be impossible in a well man- 
 aged junior school. Boys are gregarious creatures 
 and are bound to have little cliques, sub rosa, 
 within the " Court of Boyville." But these are 
 mainly harmless, and usually of brief duration. 
 The odious secret society with a quasi-official re- 
 cognition, is very much against a good democratic 
 spirit in the school, but really is a problem for 
 the secondary school to handle, and not for the 
 elementary. 
 
 ON THE TRAINING OP PARENTS. 
 
 It would be fortunate indeed for the majority 
 of youngsters who find themselves in boarding- 
 school, could they be, for the first at least, ab- 
 solutely cut off from their parents. A healthy 
 boy, however home-loving is not apt to languish 
 very long in the throes of nostalgia, if the dot- 
 ing father or mother could only suppress for a 
 while their homesickness for the boy. It is pretty 
 hard for them to leave him, and they seldom give 
 him the square deal, and make it any easier. A 
 little boy may come in for some "mothering" at 
 
188 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 school under stress of circumstances, but it is 
 not often that he either wishes it, or needs it. 
 
 If parents would but satisfy themselves of the 
 personnel of the school and its policy, and then, 
 having entered the boy, abide by the school's 
 rules and regulations without expecting special 
 privileges, the co-operation would contribute a 
 vast amount towards the boy's success in the 
 school. A father is apt to be better in this 
 respect than the mother, and this is probably one 
 reason why in England v.lu-n the father is the 
 deciding factor in the family, the boy is more of 
 a success in boarding-school, than in America. 
 
 Parents should remove their fear of accident 
 from the boy, and allow him to study and play 
 as other boys do, if he is normal physically and 
 mentally. The chances are that he will prove 
 slightly abnormal mentally at first, and grossly 
 so socially, but there is nothing like the class- 
 room and the athletic field to develop an all- 
 sided normal condition. Football for young- 
 sters, instead of being full of brutality and full 
 of danger, is really comparatively safe as imma- 
 ture boys have not the weight to play it hard 
 enough to injure themselves, and it is a game 
 that stimulates courage, quickness of perception, 
 mental alertness, esprit de corps, physical 
 strength and moral vigor. The' writer having 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 189 
 
 had several years experience in managing a foot- 
 ball team of boys from twelve to fourteen, can 
 not recall a single serious injury to any boy 
 that ever played on his teams, or on opposing 
 teams, or on other pre-adolescent teams during 
 the same period. His research at the hospitals 
 confirm the opinion that, although the sport may 
 be abandoned for older boys, it has not proven 
 the cause of operations for rupture, or for broken 
 bones, or dislocations, in the institutions studied. 
 
 The other sports should, and probably do, have 
 the spontaneous support of parents. A boy 
 should have a physical examination semi-an- 
 nually at the school, and only be debarred from 
 participation in school athletics for some organic 
 weakness, or serious structural defect. 
 
 Co-operation is a mighty word, and a power 
 that must obtain both within and without the 
 school ranks in order that the boy's progress 
 may not be impeded, or the work of the school 
 restricted. Petty animosities that may arise in 
 the staff, should give place, and will give place 
 under the tactful handling of a wise headmaster, 
 to united effort for the welfare of the school. 
 
 ILLNESSES. 
 
 The vacations, and especially those at Christ- 
 mas and in the Spring, are the chief source of 
 
190 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 contagious diseases in the school. If a fortnight 
 elapses in January and again in April, with no 
 contagion appearing the headmaster who watches 
 carefully the health of his school, may rest easily. 
 It is fortunate when a school is located near 
 enough to a centre of sufficient size to support a 
 hospital, for the hospital is always a haven when 
 more serious diseases like scarlet fever and 
 typhoid arise, and it is also a satisfaction to have 
 it nearby in case of surgical exigencies. No 
 doubt simpler illnesses such as measles, chicken- 
 pox, mumps, etc., if they have to be endured at 
 all, may be successfully managed in the portion 
 of the school set apart as an infirmary, under the 
 care of a special trained nurse, without parti- 
 cular danger of spreading to more than the im- 
 mediate case or cases in hand. Casual disturb- 
 ances such as colds, tonsilitis, indigestion, cuts 
 and bruises, etc., etc., can certainly be managed 
 there under the direction of the school physician. 
 But with the exception of cuts and bruises, it is 
 not necessary to be afflicted with these troubles 
 if the boys are properly watched. That preven- 
 tion is better than cure is by far the best policy 
 to follow. It is improbable that any boy who 
 washes, dresses, exercises, eats, sleeps, and works 
 properly, will be subject to any of these misfor- 
 tunes. It is probable that irregularity in th* 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 191 
 
 movement of the bowels contributes more to 
 temporary ailments than any one certain cause, 
 and as this is a fixed and known cause, it is the 
 more readily dealt with. The prevention of con- 
 tagious illnesses lies in the sanitation of the 
 premises, the purity of the food supply espe- 
 cially milk, the avoidance of malarial districts, 
 the amount of fresh air and sunshine allowed to 
 penetrate the buildings daily, and as close a 
 report as possible of the dangers to which the 
 boy has been exposed during the vacations, and 
 may be importing, unawares, to the school To 
 be ever ready to cope with conditions, and ever 
 watchful of the boys is indeed sound advice, yet 
 it is probable that too great an anxiety or too 
 close a scrutiny, constantly, for symptoms, 
 stimulates a state of mind that is more likely to 
 induce disease than to repel it. Consequently it 
 is a good plan when the boys are kept too busy 
 to be sick, and their minds kept full of other 
 ideas. 
 
 A BOY'S SUMMER. 
 
 The summer problem is a serious question. 
 Frequently three or more ill-spent months will 
 undo nearly all the good, physical, mental, moral 
 and social, that a school has built up. Travel is 
 no doubt of interest to the majority of boys, and 
 
192 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 a judicious amount judiciously undertaken is a 
 valuable educational asset. Over-done, it is a 
 great misfortune for the boy, but even at that, 
 it is probably better in every way than a sum- 
 mer of loafing at a fashionable hotel, or in the 
 holiday home that revolves in the social whirl 
 Boys who are sent to boarding-school at an early 
 age, certainly should have the opportunity for 
 some acquaintance with their families, and the 
 ideal summer for such, is the "private camp" 
 where the boy may live a healthy out-of-door 
 life with his family, who have made some ar- 
 rangement to keep him employed at a fixed oc- 
 cupation domestic duties, manual training, 
 studying, or something of that sort for at least 
 two hours of the forenoon and during the rest of 
 the day assured as much time as possible in com- 
 pany with his father or mother, whichever parent 
 is closest in his confidence. A summer thus spent 
 means a return to school in good health, in men- 
 tal alertness, in moral advancement, and in true 
 social progress. It is hoped that the boy will 
 have brothers and sisters and other companions 
 of his own age in this, his summer home. The 
 comradeship of the sister is of vital value, as it 
 is the boy's opportunity for acquaintance with 
 feminine ways. Such a vacation assures a happy, 
 busy, summer, and if happy enough, and busy 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 193 
 
 enough, there will be no time for morbidity. The 
 testimony of numerous boys affirms the fact that 
 the summer vacation, if not a busy one filled with 
 good things, is sure to prove exactly the reverse. 
 The temptations of sex are more difficult to resist 
 when the woodside, the barn, and other isolated 
 places, invite to seclusion, and the mercury sug- 
 gests that loafing is better than exercise. 
 
 For the boys who for one reason or another 
 can not spend such a summer with their families, 
 probably the " boy's camp" is the place. Camp 
 life of this character has much to commend it, 
 and in the main is generally healthy. There are 
 some camps perhaps where the honor of the boys 
 is put to too severe a test, or where, if the honor 
 system is not in vogue, the boys are not busily 
 enough occupied or carefully enough watched. 
 Under such loose administration, the demoralisa- 
 tion may be as great, or even greater, than in the 
 unsettled home, as the larger number of boys 
 in the group provide a stronger impetus towards 
 evil, once the momentum is started in that direc- 
 tion. But the thoughtful selection of a camp, 
 recommended perhaps by another boy whom the 
 father or mother may have confidence in, or by 
 parents who have had boys there in past seasons 
 and are very sure of the influence of the estab- 
 lishment, will result in finding a fit place. Per- 
 
194 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 sonal impressions are apt to be a good guide, and 
 it is an excellent plan to visit several camps of a 
 summer, with an idea of choosing one the fol- 
 lowing season for the boy. Visitors are usually 
 welcome at these camps, and are sure to be very 
 cordially received and hospitably treated, if 
 the camp directors are men of the right sort. 
 There are two very distinct types of camps. 
 One is the type in which the younger and older 
 boys are completely segregated, as they are in the 
 junior and senior boarding-schools. This plan 
 has much to commend it. Personally speaking I 
 feel that it rather the better. The rights of the 
 youngsters are not infringed upon by older boys, 
 and the camp can be so directed as to give a little 
 more personal comradeship to the lads, than 
 older boys require. The second type is the camp 
 that receives boys of all ages, separating them in 
 tent-groups, and in sports, but bringing them 
 together at other times. 
 
 The question of a school camp is answered 
 negatively at the outset upon several grounds. 
 Men who have worked with a group of boys for 
 eight months or more, find better rest and recupe- 
 ration, and return the better prepared for school 
 work in the autumn, by spending the summer 
 holidays in a different way. It is equally true 
 that the boys will benefit by separation from the 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 195 
 
 lads and from the masters with whom they have 
 lived nine months of the year. Like the masters 
 they return fresher for the comradeships and 
 environment of the autumn by experiencing a 
 complete change during the summer. From a 
 business point of view, although schools have 
 been known to evolve from camps, it is improb- 
 able that the school can expect very much addi- 
 tional patronage through the establishment of a 
 camp. A canvas of several camps revealed the 
 fact that the great majority of boys enrolled, 
 were day-school boys, and were really the 
 most remote of candidates for boarding-school. 
 This is partly true, because the moderate ex- 
 pense for a satisfactory summer for a boy, 
 reaches the hearts and pocket-books of those to 
 whom the expense of boarding-schools is prohi- 
 bitory. The few boarding-school boys who were 
 met with, were perfectly loyal to their own 
 schools. 
 
 The camp councillor is even a more important 
 man than a master, and perhaps it is unfortunate 
 that the camps as a rule take rather immature 
 college men to direct the destinies of the boys. 
 It is quite an art to be a good councillor, in 
 every sense of the word. 
 
 As a financial proposition per se t the number 
 
196 YOUNG BOYS AND BOARDING-SCHOOL 
 
 of camps that flourish, justify the conclusion, 
 that the business must be remunerative. 
 
 ARTICULATION 
 
 In drawing this discussion of the functions, or- 
 ganisation, and administration of the sub-pre- 
 paratory boarding-school to a close, we should 
 glance once more at the object of the pursuit 
 the all-sided preparation of the boy for his next 
 step in life the secondary school 
 
 At the age of fourteen or fifteen, the boy has 
 reached the full period of puberty, he has come 
 to a very full consciousness of sex, and with 
 his rapid mental and physical growth at this 
 time, the world seems to open before him in a 
 new light. He is tired of being with little boys; 
 he ignores them most haughtily; he feels he 
 belongs with the older fellows in the upper 
 school, and he is right. The time has come for 
 him to change. It is a change too; not merely 
 the passing from one form to another, but the 
 stepping from one environment into a new life. 
 His lessons from now on must be learned in a 
 different way, and, for a different purpose, for 
 the golden shore of college is the goal he has in 
 mind. And if the work of the lower school has 
 been sincere, and true, and thorough, we shall 
 find him a well-developed boy, ready of mind, 
 
SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL 197 
 
 strong of body, and resolute in character per- 
 fectly equipped for three or four years of work 
 in the college-preparatory school and then, for 
 him, it will be Harvard, or Princeton, or Yale, 
 or even that still greater university the World ! 
 Can it be that any boy thus educated educated 
 in the fullest meaning of the word will fail of 
 success in life? To a rugged constitution, here- 
 dity and disease present no fear, to the mind 
 self -controlled, dissapation offers no allurement. 
 Physically robust, mentally expanded, morally 
 firm, socially superior, the boy matured can meet 
 the world a God-fearing man, a valuable citi- 
 zen, and one worthy to be the father of genera- 
 tions to come. 
 
 And so the articulation between one school and 
 the next takes place not in a continuation of 
 just the same subjects, or methods, or ideals, but 
 in a complete and symmetrical preparation for 
 the activities, the emotions, and the successes, of 
 adolescence. 
 

 
 VI \\JL- 
 
 
 ^jCM*-**^ 
 
ID UOJbi 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF